Amid today's heavy selling pressure and negative breadth, the stocks that did hold up well or make a leap were most likely the beneficiary of positive research or news. Take Arrow Electronics (ARW) - Get Report. The stock popped 9 3/8, or 40.8%, to 32 3/8 after it was raised to strong buy from outperform by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette analyst Mark Hassenberg raised his 2000 earnings estimates to $2.27 a share, from $2.06 and initiated a 2001 estimate of $3.15 a share. Merrill Lynch analyst Jerry Labowitz set a price target of 30 for Arrow and raised his rating to buy from accumulate.
JDS Uniphase
(JDSU)
jumped 22 1/2, or 9.6%, to 258 after
PaineWebber
initiated coverage of the stock as a top pick and established a price target of 330 for the designer and developer of a range of products for the fiber-optic communications market.
Carrier1 International
(CONE) - Get Report
turned in an impressive performance, leaping 17 1/16, or 97.9%, to 34 1/2 in its trading debut. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter priced 9.375 million shares. Each ADR was priced at $17.4835 and is equal to one-fifth of an ordinary share. Luxembourg-based Carrier1 provides voice, Internet, bandwidth and related telecommunications services in Europe.
Mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures
Ball
(BLL) - Get Report
lost 1 1/4 to 28 11/16 and
Conagra
(CAG) - Get Report
slipped 1/2 to 16 3/8 after the companies said they would form a strategic alliance for containers.
British Telecom
(BTY)
shed 7 7/16 to 181 5/8 after saying it has tapped
Lucent Technologies
(LU)
to equip multimedia call centers for its customers in Britain. BT said Lucent would begin supplying the call centers immediately, through
BT Business Information Systems
and BT's new
Syncordia eCRM Solutions
. Lucent gained 3, or 5.7%, to 55 7/8.
Deutsche Telekom
(DT) - Get Report
inched up 5/8 to 90 9/16 after it said it has entered a pact with
Cisco
(CSCO) - Get Report
to boost its phone network and set a separate deal with
Compaq
(CPQ)
and
Intershop
to develop a virtual market for e-businesses. Cisco dropped 1 3/8 to 137 1/4 while Compaq gained 3/4 to 25 15/16.
Internet Capital Group
(ICGE)
lost 1/4 to 119 after it said it has agreed to buy an interest in
Ecredit.com
, in which Ecredit.com would receive Internet Capital Group stock worth $450 million.
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
gained 1/2 to 94 3/4 after it said it has entered a deal with
Honeywell
(HON) - Get Report
that involves making an investment in Honeywell's
Myplant.com
. Honeywell rose 9/16 to 45 3/4.
Motorola
(MOT)
moved up 3 1/2 to 164 1/4 after it said it has entered a deal with 19 Web content providers, including
Amazon.com
(AMZN) - Get Report
and
Reuters
(RTRSY)
, to offer their services on its mobile phones. Amazon lost 2 to 68 7/16 while Reuters dropped 2 5/8 to 125 1/2.
Toys R Us
(TOY)
was unchanged at 11 1/2 after it said it sold a minority stake in its Toysrus.com Internet unit to affiliates of Japanese investment bank
Softbank
for $57 million. Toys R Us also said Softbank Venture Capital and Softbank Capital Partners had purchased $10 million in warrants to acquire 1.2 million shares of Toys R Us common stock at $13 a share.
USX-U.S. Steel Group
(X) - Get Report
slipped 9/16 to 22 1/2 after it said it would make a minority investment in the Internet steel exchange
e-Steel
.
Earnings/revenue reports and previews
(
Earnings estimates from First Call/Thomson Financial; earnings reported on a diluted basis unless otherwise specified. New highs and lows on a closing basis unless otherwise specified.
)
Children's Place
(PLCE) - Get Report
lost 1 1/4, or 10.3%, to 10 7/8 despite posting fourth-quarter earnings of 51 cents a share, beating the eight-analyst estimate of 49 cents and the year-ago 38 cents.
Gap
(GPS) - Get Report
was unchanged at 42 15/16 after it posted fourth-quarter earnings of 47 cents a share, beating the 21-analyst estimate of 45 cents and up from the year-ago 35 cents. The company said it will repurchase 15 million shares in fiscal 2000.
Gene Logic
(GLGC)
gained 1 11/16 to 114 after it reported a fourth-quarter loss of 29 cents a share, narrower than the six-analyst estimate of a 31-cent loss but wider than the year-ago 18-cent loss.
J.C. Penney
(JCP) - Get Report
fell 11/16 to 16 3/16 after it reported fourth-quarter earnings of 45 cents a share, missing the 11-analyst estimate of 47 cents and down from the year-ago 72 cents. The retailer said it expects to assume a first-quarter $200 million restructuring charge for its
Eckerd Drugstore
closings.
Kroger
(KR) - Get Report
fell 9/16 to 14 1/2 after it said it expects to post fourth-quarter earnings of 37 cents to 40 cents a share. The 16-analyst estimate sees the company reporting EPS of 38 cents.
Neoforma.com
(NEOF)
rose 2 to 57 7/8 after it reported a pro forma fourth-quarter loss of 40 cents a share, narrower than the single-analyst estimate of a 44-cent loss but up from the year-ago 12-cent loss.
Schering-Plough
(SGP)
lost 3/4 to 36 7/8 after it said it is on track to post fiscal 2000 earnings in line with the 25-analyst estimate of $1.64 a share. The drug company also said it would complete its current $1 billion stock buyback in the first quarter and initiate another plan.
Southern Energy
(SEHI)
rose 3/16, or 13.6%, to 1 9/16 after it reported a fourth-quarter loss of 15 cents a share, narrower than the single-analyst estimate and down from the year-ago 17-cent profit.
Wolverine Tube
(WLV)
lost 1/8 to 12 1/2 after it reported fourth-quarter earnings of 23 cents a share, beating the four-analyst estimate of 21 cents and in line with the year-ago report.
Offerings and stock actions
Dusa Pharmaceutical
(DUSA) - Get Report
rose 3, or 10.1%, to 23 3/4 after it said it will sell 1.5 million shares of its common stock to Denver-based
Invesco Funds
. The purchase price is $28.50 a share.
Entrust Technologies
(ENTU)
slipped 7/8 to 84 5/8 after it set an 8.15 million-share secondary offering at $82 a share.
Eaton
(ETN) - Get Report
popped 12 7/16, or 19%, to 78 after it said it might set an IPO for its semiconductor equipment division. Eaton said that the offering would represent less than 20% the unit.
Martha Stewart
(MSO)
lost 1 7/16, or 5.1%, to 26 9/16 after it said it would repurchase 1.37 million shares from
Time Warner
(TWX)
.
Analyst actions
Credit Suisse First Boston
upgraded
America Online
(AOL)
to strong buy. America Online lifted 1 13/16 to 60 1/8. America Online said it has chosen Dennis Patrick as president of its
AOL Wireless
division.
Morgan Stanley raised
Automatic Data Processing
(ADP) - Get Report
to strong buy from outperform. Automatic Data Processing declined 1/16 to 3 1/2.
Brown Brothers Harriman
cut its long-term rating on
Eastman Chemical
(EMN) - Get Report
to neutral from buy and reiterated its short-term neutral rating. Eastman Chemical skidded 1 7/8 to 36 1/2.
C.E. Unterberg
advised investors to take profits in
Echostar
(DISH) - Get Report
after recent price gains. Echostar sank 6 13/16, or 5.6%, to 114.
Merrill Lynch initiated coverage of
El Sitio
(LCTO)
-- an Internet network providing country-specific and regional content for Spanish and Portuguese-speaking audiences in Latin America and the U.S. -- as a near-term accumulate and long-term buy. El Sitio shed 3/8 to 28 5/8.
Bear Stearns
upgraded computer boxmaker
Gateway
(GTW)
to buy from attractive. Gateway popped 5 1/2, or 8.1%, to 73 1/4.
Merrill upgraded home builder and mortgage finance company
Lennar
(LEN) - Get Report
to near-term accumulate from neutral. Lennar fell 3/16 to 15 3/4.
Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown
downgraded
Tandy
(TAN) - Get Report
, the owner of
Radio Shack
, to buy from strong buy on concerns about the quality of the company's earnings. Tandy slipped 3 3/16, or 7.9%, to 36 11/16.
Warburg Dillon Read
raised its price target on
Tekelec
(TKLC)
to 54 from 35. Tekelec skidded 3/8 to 43.
First Boston upped the price target of semiconductor company
Texas Instruments
(TXN) - Get Report
to 165 from 140. Texas Instruments bounced 9 3/8, or 6.3%, to 156 1/2.
Separately, Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown raised its price targets on Texas Instruments,
Analog Devices
(ADI) - Get Report
and
LSI Logic
(LSI) - Get Report
. Analog Devices leaped 13 11/16, or 9.2%, to 161 5/16 and LSI Logic declined 1 3/8 to 57 5/8.
First Boston upgraded e-commerce software developer
Transaction Services
(TSAI)
to strong buy from buy. Transaction Services mounted 12 1/8, or 43.6%, to 39 7/8.
Merrill Lynch rolled out coverage of
TriQuint Semiconductor
(TQNT)
with an intermediate accumulate, long-term buy rating. TriQuint jumped 6 1/2, or 5.8%, to 117.
Merrill upgraded shipping titan
Union Pacific's
(UNP) - Get Report
near-term rating to buy from accumulate. Union Pacific stumbled 2 1/16, or 5.2%, to 37 1/4.
U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray
started coverage of
Zoll Medical
(ZOLL)
as a strong buy and set a price target of 54. Zoll Medical bounced 5 11/16, or 12.1%, to 52 11/16.
Miscellany
Boeing
(BA) - Get Report
declined 9/16 to 36 9/16 after it said it is starting a new unit aimed at developing new ventures ranging from e-commerce to telecommunications designed to overhaul and modify work on the thousands of Boeing aircraft around the world.
Go.com
(GO) - Get Report
, a unit of
Disney
(DIS) - Get Report
, said
ABC.com
posted a 60% rise in unique users from December to January. Go.com edged up 3/4 to 23 3/4, Disney retreated 15/16 to 33 3/16.
Marriott International
(MAR) - Get Report
said they reached a tentative agreement to resolve litigation involving certain limited partnerships formed in the 1980s. Marriott International tumbled 2 5/16, or 7.7%, to 27 3/8.
priceline.com
(PCLN)
, the Internet company that allows consumers to bid on everything from T-bone steaks to airplane tickets, said it named Heidi Miller as chief financial officer. Miller, who was formerly CFO at
Citigroup
(C) - Get Report
, will also join the priceline board and become senior vice president, strategic planning and administration. Now if she could only do something about those
commercials. priceline.com climbed 4 7/8, or 9.2%, to 56 3/4.
In premarket trading,
Qualcomm
(QCOM) - Get Report
slid 7 3/16 to 139 11/16 after was down to 139 15/16 from yesterday's closing price of 146 7/8, after
The Wall Street Journal
reported that China would delay its approval for a Chinese mobile-phone network that would use the company's CDMA technology. According to the
Journal
, some foreign business leaders think the postponement might be a bargaining tactic launched before
Congress
debates support for China's admission into the
World Trade Organization
.
Sylvan Learning Systems
(SLVN)
advanced 2 23/32, or 21.5%, to 15 23/32 after it said it was shaking up its management and planning to launch a $500 million investment venture to foster Internet companies. The company said president and co-chief executive Douglas Becker would become chairman and sole CEO.
