Market Update: Investors Lying Low Ahead of Election Results

Last week, investors were waiting with baited breath for

Cisco

(CSCO) - Get Report

to report earnings. Now that it has, they're nowhere to be found.

This presidential election day has taken attention (and, more importantly, volume) away. And it's left both the

Nasdaq Composite Index and

Dow Jones Industrial Average with little conviction to move anywhere for much of the trading day. Both, however, were lately moving lower.

The Nasdaq was getting a bit of a boost from Cisco, which

reported earnings of 18 cents a share yesterday, beating analyst estimates by a penny. Revenues were strong and earnings estimates for the coming year were revised upward. The stock was in negative territory until recently, when it was up 2.6%.

And while Cisco was the most actively traded stock on the Nasdaq, chipmaker

Transmeta

(TMTA)

was the newest and the biggest gainer. Remember the days of heady IPOs? Here's a reminder: The semiconductor maker opened at $44 -- after its initial public offering of 13 million shares was priced at $21 each. The company's flagship product is the Crusoe processor, which uses a software-based technology that consumes less power and promises to prolong the battery life of a device. It lately was trading at $47.25, or an increase of 125%.

On the flipside,

Pets.com

(IPET)

said it is going to cease operations.

In spite of the good news for Transmeta's investors, the

Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index

, or SOX as it is called, was down 4.7%. It was hurt, in part, by Cisco announcement as part of its earnings report that its inventories increased by 59%. Those inventories consist of components and other products sold by semiconductor manufacturers, so if Cisco is going to let inventories run down, it won't be purchasing chips. That's going to hurt sales at these companies.

TheStreet.com

took a look at what Cisco's

inventory numbers mean for chip stocks. News of Cisco's inventory levels work toward confirming market fears that came to light after

Nortel Networks

(NT)

reported high inventory levels when the optical giant reported its

earnings in October.

The blue-chip Dow was a victim of widespread uncertainty.

General Motors

(GM) - Get Report

was dragging after the automaker's 2001 earnings estimates were cut by

Goldman Sachs

. Goldman, which also cut

Ford's

(F) - Get Report

targets, said it was making the cuts because of the slowing demand for light trucks. GM lately was off 5.9%.

J.P. Morgan

(JPM) - Get Report

was down $2.44 after making gains yesterday ahead of the announcement that its marriage plans with

Chase Manhattan

(CMB)

had received anti-trust approval from the Department of Justice.

IBM

(IBM) - Get Report

was gaining after the company announced it had developed chipmaking technology that can be used to build smaller optical chips for high-speed communications networks.

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Sector Watch

The

Philadelphia Stock Exchange Computer Box Maker Index

, which tracks the companies that make the machines that dominate the workspace on our desks, jumped 3.3%, with help from most components.

Gateway

(GTW)

rose 8.5%. Yesterday, the compnay said it would use Nasdaq's newest star, Transmeta's Crusoe chip, in an Internet-access device.

There's some strength to the commodity-related

Philadelphia Stock Exchange Forest & Paper Products Index

, which was up 1%. Got to love those trees.

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Bonds/Economy

Bonds are slightly lower as the market watches developments in the presidential election. A Bush win is seen as a bit more negative for bonds, while a Gore victory would probably have little effect.

TheStreet.com

took a look at how the bond market should

play out after the election. Once again, volume is light.

The benchmark 10-year

Treasury note is at 99 2/32, down 3/32, to yield 5.878%.

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