Monday: PCs in the Spotlight

By Alex Berenson ,

Following two jittery weeks, the market took a breather today.

After rising as much as 25 points and falling as many as 35, the

Dow Jones Industrial Average

of 30 major companies ended the day basically unchanged on average volume, rising 4.62 points to close at 6489.02. The technology-heavy

Nasdaq Composite Index

trended lower all day, closing down 9.04 points at 1279.52.

Among other broad market indexes, the

S&P 500

fell 1.94 to close at 746.93, while the

Russell 2000

index of smaller stocks dripped down 1.39 to finish at 355.32. Bond markets were also quiet Monday, with the benchmark 30-year Treasury rising 9/32 to yield 6.58%.

With traders growing increasingly worried about reports of slack retail demand for computers, several major PC makers were losers on the day.

Compaq

(CPQ:NYSE) dropped 4 1/8 to 72 5/8, while

Dell

(DELL:Nasdaq), one of the year's biggest winners, slipped 3 1/4 to 51 3/4. Another big 1996 gainer,

Intel

(INTC:Nasdaq), dropped 2 3/8 to finish at 132 1/4.

But

IBM

(IBM:NYSE) shrugged off both computer jitters and a story questioning its earnings in

Barron's

and closed the day down just 1/2 at 154 1/8.

Other market movers included "Year 2000" play

Zitel

(ZITL:Nasdaq), which offers fixes for computers whose antiquated software could cause them to crash when 1999 turns into 2000. ZITL, one of the most volatile stocks on the Nasdaq, inexplicably jumped 7 3/4 to 45 3/4 after

Barron's

questioned the size of the company's prospective market.

Geron

, (GERN:Nasdaq) a California biotechnology company developing anticancer drugs, jumped 2 5/8 to 11 1/2 after announcing a $2 million investment from $20 billion drugmaker

Pharmacia & Upjohn

(PNU:NYSE). PNU didn't react to the news, closing down 1/8 at 39.

With the crucial Christmas shopping season nearing its close, retail stocks barely budged in the face of conflicting reports about the strength of the season's sales.

Wal-Mart

(WMT:NYSE) closed down 1/8 at 23 1/2 while

Sears

(S:NYSE) rose 3/8 to 45 3/4.

By Alex Berenson

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