Today's Market: Stocks Slip South
(Updated from 8:38 a.m. EDT)
Without any earnings news or economic data to give rudder to the market today, early trading was quiet and stocks were following through on earnings jitters from Friday.
"We'll probably get a little dip today," said Todd Clark, head of listed trading at
W.R. Hambrecht
. "Friday's weakness may spill over into today. We're not done pulling back a bit.
Juniper's
(JNPR) - Get Report
news wasn't great. And there are concerns about more preannouncements."
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 13 to 10,964 soon after the open. The
Nasdaq Composite dipped 12 to 2203, while the
S&P 500 lost 2 to 1263.
Juniper Networks on Friday warned it would miss its second quarter revenue targets. And as the second-quarter "confession" season enters
week number two, investors may worry they're in for more bad news. During confession season, companies that expect to miss financial performance targets let the market know by "preannouncing." Wall Street is hoping corporate profits will begin to reaccelerate during the fourth quarter of this year, but the outlook for a turnaround is still murky.
Software maker
Remedy
(RMDY)
was jumping 63.4% to $29.97 on news it is being bought by rival
Peregrine
(PRGN)
. Peregrine was off 15.8% to $24.24.
Several other tech names were gaining in early trading, including
Realnetworks
(RNWK) - Get Report
and
Foundry Networks
(FDRY)
.
Robertson Stephens
raised its 2001 and 2002 earnings estimates on the company this morning and set a price target of $21.50.
Ford
(F) - Get Report
was higher in preopen trading after
Salomon Smith Barney
upgraded the stock to buy from neutral this morning.
And Juniper, which sparked a selloff Friday with an
earnings warning, was 3% lower to $36.78 soon after the open.
Credit Suisse First Boston
and
Robertson Stephens
this morning cut their 2001 and 2002 earnings estimates on the company.
Juniper has plenty of company in the confessions department. So far this confession season, earnings preannouncements from the major players have been mostly negative. Computer server maker
Sun Microsystems
(SUNW) - Get Report
, PC maker
Hewlett-Packard
(HWP)
, financial powerhouse
J.P. Morgan Chase
(JPM) - Get Report
, networkers
Broadcom
(BRCM)
and
3Com
(COMS)
, handheld device maker
Handspring
(HAND)
and chipmaker
Lattice Semiconductor
(LSCC) - Get Report
are among those that have warned they would miss second-quarter targets.
Buoyed for most of last week by encouraging works from
Intel
(INTC) - Get Report
and
Xilinx
(XLNX) - Get Report
, the indices wiped out Friday after Juniper warned and a technical problem forced a halt in trading for 85 minutes on the
New York Stock Exchange.
Last week, the Dow dipped 0.1%, while the S&P 500 rose 0.3% and the Nasdaq climbed 3.1%.
Meanwhile, stocks are trading at the top of a narrow trading range they've been in since early May, suggesting they might not have much room to move higher. The Dow is just 2% above where it started the year, but 17% higher since hitting its March 22 low of 9389.48. The Nasdaq is down 10% year to date, but ahead 35% after hitting a two-year low of 1638.80 on April 4.
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Bonds/Economy
Treasury prices were strong this morning after slipping Friday.
The benchmark 10-year
Treasury note was lately up 9/32 to 97 16/32, while yields had slipped to 5.333%. Prices on the 30-year note were climbing 12/32 to 95 5/32, and yielding 5.719%.
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International
European stocks were mixed in morning trading, with strength in
Deutsche Telekom
(DT) - Get Report
and oil stocks. London's
FTSE 100
was showing minor losses, lately down 0.58% to 5916. The
CAC-40
in Paris was gaining just 0.17% and Frankfurt's
Xetra Dax
was moving 0.48% higher.
The euro was lately trading at $0.8464. The dollar was trading at 121.66 yen.
Stocks tumbled in major Asian markets overnight. Tokyo's
Nikkei 225
closed down 203.74 points, or 1.52%, to 13,226.48 as investors fretted over weak data on the nation's gross domestic product growth and tech earnings worries in the U.S. The Nikkei is now trading just above an eight-week low that was hit last Tuesday. Hong Kong's
Hang Seng
closed down 133.40, or 0.97%, to 13,675.49.
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