Another Winning Week, as Market Pushes Through Early Weakness
Reverting to a familiar pattern, the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
and the
S&P 500
bounced off early weakness to cap another upside week with a winning session.
The S&P, which traded as low as 1022.69 at midsession, started climbing around 12:40 p.m. EST and finished up 5.93 at a record 1034.21. The Dow sported a similar pattern but didn't make it back to Wednesday's record close of 8451.06, ending with a gain of 38.36 to 8413.94.
The tech-stirred
Nasdaq Composite Index
, down more than 13 at midday, advanced 1.12 to 1728.13. Such large stocks as
Intel
(INTC) - Get Intel Corporation Report
,
Dell
(DELL) - Get Dell Technologies Inc Class C Report
and
Microsoft
TheStreet Recommends
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were on the plus side but smaller issues lagged. The small-cap
Russell 2000
lost 0.22 to 453.99.
For the week, the Dow gained 43.84, or 0.5%; the S&P 500 gained 14.12, or 1.4%; the Nasdaq gained 17.71, or 1%; and the Russell 2000 slipped 0.30, essentially unchanged.
In today's session,
New York Stock Exchange
advancers outpaced decliners by 1,558 to 1,336 on 594.3 million shares. New Big Board highs led new lows by 176 to 12. On the Nasdaq, 2,162 decliners squeaked ahead of 2,159 advancers on 755.6 million shares. New Nasdaq highs topped new lows by 172 to 54.
Today's double-witching options expiration (covered in this afternoon's
Options Buzz) seemed to account for some of the jerkiness in the session's activity. "More than anything else, the market's shown the typical hesitation on a typical expiration day," said Gregory Nie, chief technical analyst at
Everen Securities
in Chicago. "It's not providing any material change to the overall trend."
While the market's positive bias remains intact, Nie said, a more extensive pullback than yesterday's little break is in the offing. "Any kind of decent strength next week is going to push a number of indicators into overbought territory," he said. "I do think it's just going to be an interim time out, followed by a resumption of the uptrend."
Support for the Dow could come as soon as 8200, with a "high probability" of support between 8000 and 8200, Nie said. "That really is minor from the standpoint of 200 to 300 points lower after what's probably going to be a 900-point rally," he said.
And Nie preemptively rejected a fundamental explanation for a March downturn: the start of first-quarter earnings preannouncement season. "An available rationalization for a market that was overbought to begin with," he scoffed.
The bond market declined modestly, with the benchmark 30-year Treasury down 9/32 to 103 18/32 in price. The yield rose to 5.87%.
Friday's market action
(earnings estimates from
First Call
; new highs and lows on a closing basis unless otherwise specified):
Ciena
(CIEN) - Get Ciena Corporation Report
stock finally found a bottom near 40 1/2 late today, and ended down 16 1/16, or 27.7%, at 42. A whopping 27.5 million shares changed hands. The stock now trades at 38.5 times trailing earnings.
Although the supplier of fiber-optic equipment topped quarterly profit estimates
yesterday evening, warnings about an order slowdown from its large customer
WorldCom
(WCOM)
scared some investors. Others remained sanguine, as
TheStreet.com
reported in a
story today.
A Ciena spokesman later said the company has executives negotiating a deal in New York right now; several people say the new customer is
Bell Atlantic
(BEL)
. Bell Atlantic added 7/16 to 89.
--
Kevin Petrie
Earnings reports and previews
Hirsch International
(HRSH)
imploded 10 3/8, or 48%, to a 52-week low of 11 1/4 after late
yesterday warning of a fourth-quarter shortfall.
PMR
(PMRP)
collapsed 6 1/8, or 33.3%, to a 52-week low of 12 3/8 after late
yesterday reporting third-quarter earnings in line with estimates.
Deswell Industries
(DSWLF)
rocketed 3 1/8, or 18.5%, to 20 1/16 after reporting third-quarter earnings of 78 cents per share. The company earned 59 cents a year earlier; First Call had no estimates.
Intersolv
(ISLI)
plunged 3 9/16, or 18%, to 16 1/4 despite late
yesterday reporting fourth-quarter earnings 5 cents per share better than expectations.
Smart Modular Technologies
(SMOD)
, which late
yesterday reported a first-quarter upside surprise, was chopped 5 7/8, or 16.4%, to 30 3/16. The company told analysts on a conference call that a large customer has diverted some of its business away from Smart because of product delivery problems,
Reuters
reported.
Puma Technology
(PUMA)
dropped 15/16, or 12.9%, to 6 1/2 after reporting second-quarter earnings of 3 cents per share. That met the two-analyst consensus estimate but was down from the year-ago 4 cents.
Datum
(DATM)
shot up 1 7/8, or 12.2%, to 17 1/4 after late
yesterday reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings.
Centigram
(CGRM)
slumped 1 3/8, or 9.9%, to 12 3/4 after late
yesterday reporting a disappointing first-quarter loss.
GeoScience
(GSCI)
advanced 1, or 9.8%, to 11 3/8 after reporting fourth-quarter earnings of 23 cents per share. That was in line with the two-analyst outlook and up from the year-ago 17 cents.
Broadway & Seymour
(BSIS)
slid 3/4, or 8.7%, to 7 7/8 after late
yesterday warning of a first-quarter shortfall.
Converse
(CVE) - Get Cenovus Energy Inc. Report
deflated 9/16 to 6 9/16 after late
yesterday reporting a wider-than-anticipated fourth-quarter loss.
Blonder Tongue Laboratories
(BDR) - Get Blonder Tongue Laboratories, Inc. Report
-- no kidding -- fell 3/4 to 15 3/16 after reporting fourth-quarter earnings of 20 cents per share. That missed the two-analyst view by a penny but beat the year-ago 15 cents.
Offerings and stock actions
DoubleClick
(DCLK:Nasdaq) soared 9 1/2, or 55.9%, to 26 3/4 in its debut session. It traded as high as 31 3/4 intraday.
Goldman Sachs
led the offering. A
TSC
special contributor examined the DoubleClick IPO in a
commentary yesterday.
Nutriceutical International
(NUTR:Nasdaq) made its debut with a rise of 1 7/8, or 10.7%, to 19 7/16.
Deutsche Morgan Grenfell
was lead underwriter.
ATMI
(ATMI)
shed 1 1/8 to 28 3/8 after filing with the
Securities and Exchange Commission
to offer up to 4 million shares.
Complete Business Solutions
(CBSL)
improved 1 13/16 to 63 5/8 after late yesterday setting a 2-for-1 stock split.
Graco
gained 3/4 to 30 7/8 after setting a buyback of up to 1.2 million shares.
HealthCare Financial Partners
(HCFP)
rose 1 1/8 to 38 5/8 after filing with the SEC to offer up to 2.95 million shares.
Tyco International
(TYC)
gave up 15/16 to 47 13/16 after late
yesterday announcing plans to sell 22 million shares under a shelf registration.
Mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures
Tel-Save Holdings
(TALK)
jumped 2 7/8, or 11.6%, to an all-time high of 27 11/16 on news that it has retained
Salomon Smith Barney
to advise it on a possible sale of the company.
Express Scripts
(ESRX)
ran up 7 1/8, or 11.2%, to an all-time high of 70 1/2 after agreeing to buy the
ValueRx
pharmacy benefit management company from
Columbia/HCA Healthcare
(COL)
for $445 million in cash. Columbia crept up 1/16 to 26 1/16.
Lukens Medical
(LUKN)
bounded 5/16, or 10.2%, to 3 3/8 before being halted around 3 p.m. EST. The company later announced that it has been in discussions to sell itself to an unnamed party for $4 per share.
Adaptec
(ADPT) - Get Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp. Report
skidded 1 3/8 to 23 5/16 after late
yesterday announcing its planned $775 million acquisition of the chip outfit
Symbios
from
Hyundai Electronics America
.
SoundView Financial Group
downgraded the stock to short-term hold from buy, maintaining a long-term buy, and trimmed its 1998 estimate slightly.
Earthgrains
(EGR)
ascended 2 3/8 to 43 7/16 after its CEO told
Reuters
the company expects more consolidation in the bakery industry and will actively pursue more acquisitions.
Axa-UAP
(AXA)
. DLJ edged up 1/8 to 82 13/16.
Banco Santander
(STD)
sizzled up 2 7/16, or 12.7%, to 21 11/16 after
Lehman Brothers
upgraded it to buy from outperform.
Bear Stearns
initiated coverage of several health-care information systems companies. Started at buy were
HBO & Co.
(HBOC)
, up 1 5/8 to 53 3/8;
Cerner
(CERN) - Get Cerner Corporation Report
, up 5/8 to 20 3/16; and
Transition Systems
(TSIX)
, up 1/4 to 19 3/4. Started at attractive were
Superior Consultant Holdings
(SUPC)
, up 3 5/8, or 10.9%, to an all-time high of 37 1/8;
Shared Medical Systems
(SMS)
, up 11/16 to an all-time high of 76 7/16; and
IDX Systems
(IDXC)
, unchanged at 36 3/8.
Humana
(HUM) - Get Humana Inc. Report
gained 13/16 to 25 5/16 after
Merrill Lynch
upped it to near-term buy from accumulate, keeping a long-term buy.
EchoStar Communications
(DISH) - Get DISH Network Corporation Class A Report
increased 11/16 to 19 1/8 after Lehman Brothers started coverage at buy with a price target of 30.
Barnes & Noble
(BKS) - Get Barnes & Noble, Inc. Report
ascended 9/16 to 32 1/8 after Goldman Sachs initiated coverage at market outperform.
Altera
(ALTR) - Get Altair Engineering Inc. Class A Report
slipped 7/16 to 39 5/16 despite an upgrade to buy from hold at
Hambrecht & Quist
.
JDN Realty
(JDN)
fell 3/4 to 31 7/8 despite a buy-rated initiation at
Gruntal
.
Mastering
(MASC)
lost 1/4 to 11 3/8 after
Furman Selz
cut it to neutral from buy and pulled it from the recommended list.
King World Productions
(KWP)
dropped 3/8 to 27 5/8 after Merrill Lynch downgraded it to near-term neutral from accumulate, maintaining a long-term buy.
HealthPlan Services
(HPS) - Get John Hancock Preferred Income Fund III Report
was up 1/4 to 25 13/16 after
SBC Warburg Dillon Read
initiated coverage at outperform with a 12- to 18-month price target of 31.
Miscellany
Laser Power
(LPWR)
soared 1 1/8, or 18.8%, to 7 1/4 after it received a key Notice of Allowability from the
Patent and Trademark Office
.
Gtech
(GTK)
improved 1 15/16 to 33 9/16 after the
Texas Lottery
ended a rebidding process for Gtech-provided services.
TheStreet.com
looked at the news in a
story today.
