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Market Update: Stocks Remain Mired in Red Muck in Late-Day Trading

Betsy Riley

The Nasdaq Composite Index lately clawed its way back above 3000 after tumbling earlier today.

It was lately trying to reach the flatline, but most other indices, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average , were lodged more solidly in negative territory after another chapter in the never-ending election story unfolded. The Dow was down, and not moving much, and so was the S&P 500 . The indices initially spiked, however, about half an hour after the opening bell, when a judge in Florida ruled that its secretary of state acted within her bounds in rejecting recounted ballots after the original deadline.

Major Indices INDEX CHANGE % VALUE Dow 60.67 -0.57% 10,595.36 S&P 500 9.28 -0.68% 1363.04 Nasdaq 18.10 -0.60% 3013.78 Russell 2000 0.93 0.19% 482.57 TSC Internet 14.15 -2.91% 471.55 NOTE CHANGE PRICE YIELD 10-Year Treasury 9/32 100 10/32 5.706% Market data as of: 2:33 p.m. EST, Nov. 17, 2000

With no conclusive election results yet, money continues to sit on the sidelines, which has led to modest volume and volatility in the marketplace. Even though there was a definite upward sprint in tandem with the judge's announcement, many are saying the election is just an excuse, while the real market-movers are concerns over slowing growth and lower-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings.

And though Sun Microsystems(SUNW Quote) was seemingly bucking the fourth-quarter-warning trend, announcing that it's on track to meet earnings targets for the current quarter and that demand remains strong, appearances were slightly deceiving in this case. Sun typically exceeds expectations, so its doing no more than meeting estimates this time around was worrisome to some close watchers of the Unix server manufacturer. TheStreet.com took a close look at Sun's news. Sun's stock lately was barely higher, up 0.6%.

Elsewhere in tech, but on the Big Board , Nortel Networks(NT Quote) was the most actively traded stock. It lately was off 4%. Yesterday, the stock fell on rumors that one or more of its customers have switched to competitors. This morning, the telecom equipment company was the focus of some cautious comments from a Banc of America Securities analyst.

Meanwhile, there were several Comp components having a down day. B2B software provider Commerce One(CMRC Quote) was lately down 11.9% after it denied rumors that a memo to its salesforce indicated weak sales. Instead, the company said the memo was routine and was intended to motivate its sales staff.

Also, VeriSign(VRSN Quote) was falling on news that China said only a handful of domestic, government-supported firms could assign Chinese-language Internet addresses. The decision hurts the registration service VeriSign launched last week, as well as other foreign address registration firms that are fighting to get companies to register domain names in Chinese characters. VeriSign was lately down 5.3%.

Chipmaking giant Intel(INTC Quote) was up again after an earlier slide into the red. It said it would launch its new high-speed Pentium 4 chip in a bid to upstage rival Advanced Micro Devices(AMD Quote) in the market for processors that run personal computers. Intel was lately 1.9% higher.

J.P. Morgan(JPM Quote) was the heaviest drag on the Dow, slapping 32 negative points on the index. Financials overall have had a crummy week after Bank of America (BAC Quote) had a negative asset quality announcement in its 10-Q.

The star today was book retailer Barnes & Noble(BKS Quote), lately up 17.6%. It was upgraded to buy from outperform at Salomon Smith Barney and by Merrill Lynch to buy from accumulate. Solly said the upgrade reflected solid business trends in the core book operations.

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Sector Watch

The American Stock Exchange Broker/Dealer Index was down 2%. Most of its components were down. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (MWD Quote) fell 4.1%. The firm, along with First Union and Bank of America, were agents on a $1.7 billion loan to Sunbeam(SOC Quote) in March 1998. Earlier this week, debt-laden Sunbeam reported a third-quarter loss well below estimates.

Sectors that would likely benefit from a Bush administration were rallying today. The American Stock Exchange Pharmaceutical Index was rising 0.3% and the American Stock Exchange Tobacco Index was 1% higher.

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Bonds/Economy