Tech-Stock Spotlight Turns to AOL, Amazon

Stocks around the world were beating a mild retreat following

yesterday's run to record highs in the

Dow Jones Industrial Average

and the

S&P 500

.

The

S&P 500

futures traded on the

Chicago Mercantile Exchange

were indicating only a slightly positive open for stocks. At 9 a.m. EDT, the June contract was down 6.3 at 1370.2. That's slightly positive because the futures closed 6.7 points above fair value last night.

Meanwhile, in the wake of yesterday's nearly 50-point decline in the

Nasdaq

, tech-stock traders will be weighing

last night's earnings report by

America Online

(AOL)

and tonight's postclose

report by

Amazon

(AMZN) - Get Report

. AOL beat the

First Call

consensus estimate by 2 cents, reporting third-quarter earnings of 11 cents a share, but is trading down 5 15/16 at 147 1/16 in premarket activity. Amazon is expected to report a first-quarter loss of 29 cents a share.

"It looks like some profit-taking on the open," said Bryan Piskorowski, market analyst at

Prudential Securities

. "Simply put, it looks like some tired blood. AOL was priced for perfection. They had a great quarter, but bid it up to a point, and you're going to get selling on the news."

But if Internet and other tech stocks continue to have trouble today, the "broadening" of the market that has occurred as trouble in tech has spurred a rally in cyclical stocks is "overall positive," Piskorowski said. "The broadening of the market bodes well over the longer term."

In the bond market, the benchmark 30-year Treasury bond was giving back yesterday's gain, lately down 14/32 at 95 11/32, lifting its yield 3 basis points to 5.57%. The only major economic report of the day, March

durable goods

orders, was somewhat stronger than expected. Orders surged 2%, exceeding an average expectation of a 1.2% increase among economists surveyed by

Reuters

. February's 4.9% drop in durables orders was revised to a 3.9% decline. Now bond traders are bracing for the monthly two-year note auction, for which bids are due at 1 p.m.

In addition,

Fed

Chairman

Alan Greenspan

speaks before the

House

at 10 a.m., but his testimony on a financial services modernization bill isn't expected to generate any market-moving headlines.

In Asia, the

Nikkei

shed 15.03 to 16,942.24 ahead of Japan's Golden Week holiday. Hong Kong's

Hang Seng

lost 231.40, or 1.7%, to 13,133.39 in options-expiration-related trading. And the South Korean

Kospi

dropped 3.95 to 790.03.

In Europe, the major indices were mixed. London's

FTSE

was lately up 1.70 to 6595.30, while the Paris

CAC

was 25.30 lower at 4365.62 and the German

Dax

was down 17.12 at 5347.69, with the focus on

Volkswagen

, which reported disappointing earnings.

Wednesday's Wake-Up Watchlist

By

Brian Louis

Staff Reporter

McKesson HBOC (MCK) - Get Report restated results for the fourth quarter and year to reverse more than $40 million in improperly recorded software sales. The improperly recorded sales amounted to $26.2 million in the fourth quarter ended March 31 and $16 million in the first three quarters of fiscal 1999. After revisions, McKesson reported a loss of 27 cents a share for the fourth quarter and earnings of 75 cents a share for the full year. Before the revisions, the fourth-quarter loss was 22 cents and the year's earnings were 84 cents. After the reversals and before special charges, McKesson reported earnings of 56 cents a share for the fourth quarter and $1.97 for the full year. The company also cut its earnings-per-share goal for fiscal 2000 to $2.50 from $3.
America Online reported third-quarter earnings of 11 cents a share, beating the 34-analyst First Call estimate by 2 cents and topping the year-ago 4 cents. The figures don't include results from Netscape, which AOL acquired March 17 in a pooling-of-interests transaction, or other one-time items.
DaimlerChrysler (DCX) said first-quarter operating profit, excluding one-time adjustments, came in at 2.774 billion euros, up 16% compared with the same period last year. The company said worldwide revenues were up 10% to 35 billion euros compared with the year-ago period. In other news (earnings estimates from First Call):
Aetna (AET) reported first-quarter operating earnings of $1.08 a share, beating the 14-analyst estimate of $1.01 and up from the year-ago operating earnings of 90 cents.
Conseco (CNC) - Get Report reported first-quarter operating earnings of 92 cents a share, ahead of the 11-analyst estimate by 2 cents and up from the year-ago 70 cents.
CVS (CVS) - Get Report reported first-quarter earnings of 40 cents a share, better than the 13-analyst estimate of 38 cents and up from the year-ago 33 cents.
DuPont's (DD) - Get Report board has approved a split-off plan to establish Conoco (COC) as a fully independent company. DuPont said the split-off would be done via an exchange offer providing DuPont stockholders the chance to exchange, on a tax-free basis, shares of DuPont stock for shares of Conoco Class B common stock currently held by DuPont.
Infinity Broadcasting (INF) - Get Report posted first-quarter earnings of 6 cents a share, beating the seven-analyst estimate by a penny and up from the year-ago 4 cents.
Financier Carl Icahn has withdrawn his slate of nominees to be elected to the board of RJR Nabisco (RN) . Icahn, who owns 7.9% of RJR, had wanted RJR to spin off its food unit rather than its tobacco business.