Preopen Trading: OK 2000, We've Had Enough! Stocks Look to End Miserable Year on a Positive Note

For those in the market, the following will likely be the happiest news they've heard in some time.

Today is the last trading session in 2000.

If that's not enough to pop the corks a little early and start the celebrating, we don't know what is.

In short, 2000 has been a perfectly dreadful year. After the stock market rocked-and-rolled higher in 1999, the major averages all lost ground during 2000. As of the close yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 5.5%, the once-blisteringly hot Nasdaq Composite was off 37.1% and the S&P 500 was off 9.2%. TheStreet.com Internet Index, also known as the DOT, is off 73.1%.

The market's not too likely to make up those losses today, as volume and price moves are expected to be very slight. In preopen trading, those few stocks that are seeing any action at all -- Cisco (CSCO Quote), America Online (AOL Quote) and Motorola (MOT Quote) -- are making very slight moves.

Of late, S&P 500 futures were trading at 1354.40, up 1.2 points, 6 points above fair value, not much of an indication in either direction for the broader index. The Nasdaq 100 futures, meanwhile, lately traded at 2515.50, about 10 points above fair value, indicating an ever-so-slight upward bias for the open.

Analyst actions are typically pretty hard to find during the year's last few sessions and today looks like no exception. Last night, however, ING Barings analyst Joanne Wuensch lowered her rating on laser eye surgery equipment maker Visx (EYE Quote) to hold from buy after the company lowered its earnings estimates for the fourth quarter earlier this year.

In other company news, investment firms Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (MWD Quote) and Merrill Lynch (MER Quote) were told yesterday that they would serve as underwriters for one of next year's most eagerly anticipated IPOs, China Telecom.

The deal, which was anticipated to have been $10 billion, now looks like it might be closer to $5 billion, thanks to the global slowdown in telecom stocks. Even at $5 billion, though, the IPO would be one of Asia's largest. The IPO will likely come to market during the second half of 2001.

The yen fell for a sixth day against the dollar, ending its first annual decline in three years, on concern that Japan is headed towards a recession.

Japan's currency dropped to a 16-month low of 114.83 per dollar from 114.64 yesterday. The euro was recently quoted higher on the day at $0.9303. The single currency has surged 12% since sinking to an all-time low of $0.8231 on Oct. 26.

Shares in Europe were generally stronger, but little changed everywhere except Germany, which was sharply higher. Paris' CAC-40 gained 43.43 to 5964.03. By contrast, London's FTSE was lately up 0.80 to 6224, and Frankfurt's Xetra Dax was up 94.13 to 6465.77.

Asian stocks were mixed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended the day up 298.98 at 15,095.53, while Tokyo's Nikkei 225 slipped 161.97 to 13,785.69.

For more on Thursday's postclose trading, see The Night Watch.