Dow Up Despite Selling; Net Stocks in Rebound
Stocks ended mixed once again on Friday, with key indexes finishing sharply below their highs after a late burst of selling.
The Dow Jones industrials ended the day up 41.32 points, or 0.4%, at 9,339.95. In the last 15 minutes of trading, a 97-point gain dwindled to zero before the blue-chip index climbed back up again.
The late retreat came as President Clinton reiterated at a White House news conference that U.S. warplanes are ready to assist NATO troops in Kosovo if Serbian leaders fail to reach agreement on a peace plan with ethnic Albanians by this morning’s deadline.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 23.05 points, or 1%, to 2,283.60, after rising as much as 1.4%.
The day ended with losers outnumbering winners by 15 to 14 on the New York Stock Exchange, while winners had a 21-to-18 edge on Nasdaq.
Many analysts noted that trading all week was lackluster, and that the Dow has been stuck mostly between 9,100 and 9,400 since early January.
“Some event is going to have to come along and turn the fence-sitters into buyers and sellers,” said Hugh Johnson, investment strategist at First Albany. “It could be anything,” he said, from a negative event such as a rise in interest rates, to positive economic developments in Japan and throughout Asia.
For the week, the Dow and the Standard & Poor’s 500 each gained 0.7%, while Nasdaq fell 1.7% and the Russell 2,000 small-stock index was off 1.5%.
The bond market had a duller day than stocks on Friday, with yields ending little changed.
The dollar, however, continued to surge against the yen, reaching an 11-week high of 121.15 yen, up from 114.24 just a week ago. The dollar also hit its best level yet versus the euro.
The dollar is being helped by the U.S. economy’s robust performance, and by the Japanese central bank’s decision this week to push overnight bank lending rates to near zero, to stimulate credit demand. Japanese bond yields also fell Friday.
On Wall Street, technology stocks, which have been battered in recent weeks, managed to rally on Friday. Internet stocks led the way, after CIBC Oppenheimer analyst Henry Blodget predicted that Net stocks would hit new highs this year.
Among the stocks he said would do especially well are Amazon.com and Yahoo. Amazon.com soared $12.38 to $101.88 and Yahoo climbed $6.44 to $135.31.
Blodget gained investors’ attention in December after he sharply increased his price projection for Amazon.com. to $400 a share, before its 3-to-1 stock split.
Among Friday’s highlights:
* Among major tech stocks, Microsoft added $2 to $147.75, but Dell Computer slid $2.88 to $80.13. Dell had prompted a tech sell-off earlier this week with weaker-than-expected sales growth data.
* In the Net sector big winners included America Online, up $4.63 to $160.38; CMGI, up $8.38 to $109; and Go2Net, up $7.13 to $104.25.
* Newport News Shipbuilding soared $3.50 to $31.94 after defense contractor General Dynamics made an unsolicited $1.4-billion cash bid for it, though shipyard officials questioned whether a deal would survive an antitrust review. General Dynamics rose 31 cents to $60.38.
* Casino stocks were hot on talk that the tourist count in Las Vegas is rising again, as new resorts open. Mirage rose $1.13 to $18.75, MGM Grand zoomed $2.69 to $36.44 and Circus Circus gained $1.50 to $17.19.
* Merrill Lynch rose $2.50 to $72.38 after the giant brokerage firm, in a move into online trading, agreed to acquire D.E. Shaw’s online brokerage technology unit.
* America West jumped $2.75 to $22.75, after the Wall Street Journal reported that the parent company of United Airlines made a cash offer for America West Holding, setting up the prospect of a bidding war with Continental Airlines over the nation’s ninth-largest airline. A United spokesman declined to comment on the report.
* SkyMall surged $2.94 to $14.75, after Northwest Airlines said it will carry SkyMall’s in-flight catalog on its U.S. flights under a 3 1/2-year agreement beginning July 1.
Market Roundup, C4
