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To: Vendit™ who wrote (18745)	5/26/1999 5:43:00 PM
From: Probart	Respond to of 41369

Stocks Rally On Strength of IBM By Cal Mankowski Reuters NEW YORK (May 26) - Stocks powered ahead Wednesday as the shares of International Business Machines Corp. jumped to a new high. The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 171.07 points, or 1.62 percent, at 10,702.16. But in the broader market, declining issues edged out advances 1,483 to 1,461 on active volume of 868 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange. The Nasdaq Composite index rose 46.28 points, or 1.94 percent, to 2,427.18. IBM ended up 14-13/16 at a record 236-1/4 ahead of Thursday's two-for-one stock split. Wall Street analysts said they were aware of no other news or fundamental reason for the big gain by IBM, other than the stock split, which some investors view as a psychological boost because the lower-priced shares can entice new buyers. The low valuation of IBM's stock and the company's solid growth outlook make the computer giant especially attractive, said SoundView Financial analyst Gary Helmig. Meanwhile, Internet stocks rebounded nicely from an early selloff on news that Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst Mary Meeker said stocks of Web companies could continue to slide, due to a lack of catalysts and the abundance of Internet companies that have recently gone public. ''It isn't uncommon this time of year for prices of technology stocks to contract when catalysts are insufficient,'' she wrote. Among the big movers, Amazon.com Inc. rose 9-6/16 to 120-15/16, Yahoo Inc! gained 13-15/16 to 140-7/8, America Online Inc. jumped 5-4/16 to 120-5/16 and CNET Inc. was up 7-9/16 at 105-1/16. Internet stocks have slumped across the board over the last several days. Analysts have said Internet stocks are pulling back from their pre-earnings highs in April and are struggling to come up with reasons sufficient to stoke valuations back up to levels reached early this year. According to a research brief, Meeker said she would not be surprised if Morgan Stanley's Internet Index, currently down about 33 percent to 560 from its April high of 861, fell another 20 percent to about 450 -- a drop of about 46 percent from one year ago, she said. Still, Meeker said she continues to believe in the business models of the sector's top players. Alex Cheung, portfolio manager of the Monument Internet Fund, said he has been buying the Internet stocks on weakness and was not concerned by the selloff. ''We know that between April and August, technology stocks tend to be weak anyway; it's normal,'' he said. ''I think the correction is pretty much over and we will see some stabilization in the next few days.'' Also helping to snap the market's streak of four straight days of losses was a report on durable goods orders for April, which showed the manufacturing sector was still rebounding. The Commerce Department said a slump in demand for transportation equipment drove orders for costly U.S. manufactured goods down sharply in April. However, excluding transportation products, orders increased last month by 0.9 percent after a 2 percent rise in March, implying a modest recovery in manufacturing activity remained intact. The Wall Street rally helped some overseas markets. Brazilian stocks, which have plummeted this week partly on concerns over the currency upheaval in neighboring Argentina, rose nearly 5 percent. Drug stocks also moved higher. SmithKline Beecham added 5/16 to 62-7/16 after the company won U.S. regulatory approval to sell its Avandia drug for diabetes. Biogen rose 1-10/16 to 108-11/16. The company said its psoriasis drug Amevive would start the last phase of trials. The Standard & Poor's composite index of 500 stocks rose 20.36 points to 1,304.76. The American Stock Exchange index was up 3.82 points to 782.66. The NYSE Composite index of all listed common stocks rose 7.50 points to 624.84. The average share was up 54 cents. The Wilshire Associates Equity Index -- the market value of NYSE, American and Nasdaq issues -- was 11,969.086, up 156.513, or 1.32 percent.