midday04-27-00

TheStreet.com's MIDDAY UPDATE

April 27, 2000

http://www.thestreet.com

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Market Data as of 4/27/00, 2:29 PM ET:

o Dow Jones Industrial Average: 10,917.58 down 27.92, -0.26%
o Nasdaq Composite Index: 3,746.75 up 116.66, 3.21%
o S&P 500: 1,464.07 up 3.08, 0.21%
o TSC Internet: 851.84 up 47.95, 5.96%
o Russell 2000: 488.53 up 4.29, 0.89%
o 30-Year Treasury: 103 20/32 down 18/32, yield 5.988%

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In Today's Bulletin:

o Midday Musings: Dow Suffers Under Financials' Weight as Gossamer Nasdaq Flits Higher
o Wrong! Rear Echelon Revelations: The Micro vs. Macro Dance

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Catch "TheStreet.com" on Fox News Channel, Saturdays at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. and Sundays at 10 a.m. (EDT). Scott Bleier, Chief Investment Strategist at Prime Charter, will be our guest April 29, 30.

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Also on TheStreet.com:

Wrong! Tactics and Strategies: The Goldman vs. Merrill Indicator

The difference between how these financials are acting offers a parable for this market.

http://www.thestreet.com/comment/wrongtactics/928365.html

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Retail: At Nordstrom, Pushing a By-the-Numbers Turnaround

Management knows it must keep comp sales improving if it is to win back shareholders.

http://www.thestreet.com/stocks/retail/928034.html

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Under the Hood: Outperforming the Nasdaq Ain't What It Used to Be

Nasdaq's fall shows that the indices aren't the best benchmarks for your fund's performance.

http://www.thestreet.com/funds/underthehood/928095.html

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Dear Dagen: Delisting Detailed: What It Takes to Get the Boot From an Exchange

Also, what happens to delisted companies.

http://www.thestreet.com/funds/deardagen/928282.html

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Midday Musings: Dow Suffers Under Financials' Weight as Gossamer Nasdaq Flits Higher

By Eileen Kinsella
Staff Reporter
4/27/00 1:25 PM ET Inflation fears sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average scampering for cover, but the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index was putting on a brave face.

Major Indices INDEX CHANGE % VALUE Dow 112.93 -1% 10,832.57 S&P 500 8.55 -0.6% 1452.44 Nasdaq 48.11 +1.3% 3678.20 Russell 2000 0.42 +0.1% 484.66 TSC Internet 27.78 +3.5% 831.67 NOTE CHANGE PRICE YIELD 10-Year Treasury 19/32 102 6.221%

Two key economic reports released this morning incited a fresh round of interest-rate jitters and rattled the markets again. The closely watched Employment Cost Index showed that pay and benefits of U.S. workers rose at the fastest pace in more than 10 years in the first quarter, while gross domestic product , featured the strongest consumer spending in nearly nine years and robust business investment that implied optimism about continued growth rates ahead.

Things looked pretty ugly in the early going, with June S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures going to limit-down. The Nasdaq Composite and the Dow quickly shed more than a 100 points in early trading. But after the initial shock wore off, stocks started fighting back. Lately the Dow was down 113, or 1%, to 10,833, off its low of the morning, while the Comp shook off the pressure and climbed, lately up 48, or 1.3%, to 3678.

Many market observers viewed the absence of serious damage as a very positive sign. "The important part is that even with the futures limit-down in the preopen, sellers were not cascading in or falling over themselves," said Bill Schneider, head of U.S. equity block trading at Warburg Dillon Read. Schneider also noted the absence of broad-based institutional selling.

Adam Wagner, president of Wagner Hermann & Herbst in Houston, echoed the sentiment. "I think this resilience is crucial to begin the big rally. This proves the market has a spine and will hopefully convince money on the sidelines to step up to the plate." Yesterday Wagner correctly predicted the selloff would be short, citing the market's short-term memory.

Interest-rate sensitive stocks, including financials and insurance stocks were taking the ECI news hard. J.P. Morgan (JPM Quote) was down 3%, while Merrill Lynch (MER Quote) was off 4.8%. The American Stock Exchange Broker/Dealer Index was down 2.4% and the Philadelphia Stock Exchange KBW/Bank Index was down 3.3%.

Insurance giant American International Group (AIG Quote) was off 2.9%, despite posting a better-than-expected 15% leap in operating profits. The S&P Insurance Index was down 3%.

Hardest hit among Dow components were American Express (AXP Quote), General Electric (GE Quote) and J.P. Morgan.

Aether Systems (AETH Quote) led the charge on the Nasdaq, soaring more than 20%, to 138 after last night posting in-line earnings and a rise in its subscriber base. Macromedia (MACR Quote) also sprinted after a better-than-expected earnings report. Shares were lately up 19 1/2, or 17.2%, to 133.

Nokia's (NOK Quote) news that pretax profit soared 76% was giving wireless stocks a boost. Nokia was rising 3 11/16, or 7.1%, to 55 9/16, Ericsson (ERICY Quote) popped 7 9/16, or 9.4%, to 88 1/2 and Qualcomm (QCOM Quote) was up 4 3/4.to 102. .

Elsewhere in the wireless world AT&T Wireless (AWE Quote) was moving up 2, or 7%, to 31 1/2 in its trading debut after the record offering was priced at $29.50 a share. That rakes in a hefty $10.62 billion for parent AT&T (T Quote) and makes the offering the largest new U.S. issue in history.

TheStreet.com Internet Sector index was up 28, or 3.5%, to 832, boosted by strength in Yahoo! (YHOO Quote) and CMGI (CMGI Quote).

The small-cap Russell 2000 was up a fraction to 485, while the broader S&P 500 was down 9, or 0.6%, to 1452.

The 10-year Treasury was lately down 19/32 to 102, its yield rising to 6.22%.

Market Internals

Breadth was negative on the Big Board and the Nasdaq on moderate volume.

New York Stock Exchange: 1,030 advancers, 1,737 decliners, 670 million shares. 27 new 52-week highs, 49 new lows.

Nasdaq Stock Market: 1,569 advancers, 2,249 decliners, 868 million shares. 23 new highs, 97 new lows.

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For a look at stocks in the midsession news, see Midday Stocks to Watch, published separately.

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Wrong! Rear Echelon Revelations: The Micro vs. Macro Dance

By James J. Cramer

4/27/00 11:43 AM ET

It's time to reprise why it is so hard here. It is difficult to strike a balance between the micro and the macro. For example, in the micro news, the company-specific stuff, we heard so many great things in wireless, in telco equipment and in semiconductor equipment manufacturing and in semis that we can't leave those stocks.

But the macro news, the rest of the economy, is very difficult because -- well, frankly, don't you have to expect that Greenspan will just hammer us the next time he talks? Don't you think he will say bad things when he speaks if the market is up because of the red hot consumer spending? Don't you think that Greenspan will be your enemy until we see some break in these numbers?

We think YES!

That's why we are buyers of the area that is good and sidelined for the rest. That's why we have a substantial cash position. Because of that cash position we wanted to make a bet that maybe we would see more benign macro numbers. We didn't. That bet was WRONG! Someone emailed me this morning and said, "These reports aren't helping us. We don't need to see you flip-flopping."

To which I say: Oh Lordy, come on. This is real life. This isn't the fantasized, sanitized money-manager gobbledy-gook that you see on TV. We screwed up. We made a mistake. We got it wrong. (Jeff Berkowitz just hung up a sign on his door that says "Dr. Berkowitz, Cerebral Proctology." That pretty much says it all.)

I can't help it if we get it wrong. We are not the Laurence Olivier of money management. We can't act that we did it right if we didn't. We can't lie to you. We wish we had gotten it right. We didn't -- unlike those managers you see on TV who are NEVER WRONG!!

But we recovered and now we are playing it our way: lean, with some buys in the sectors we like.

James J. Cramer is manager of a hedge fund and co-founder of TheStreet.com. At time of publication, his fund had no positions in any stocks mentioned. His fund often buys and sells securities that are the subject of his columns, both before and after the columns are published, and the positions that his fund takes may change at any time. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Cramer's writings provide insights into the dynamics of money management and are not a solicitation for transactions. While he cannot provide investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to comment on his column at [e-mail].

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