Friday, May 14, 1999

The major indices finish up from their lows, but their lows were so low that they're finishing low indeed.

Author:
Publish date:: May 14, 1999 4:56 PM EDT

The major indices finish up from their lows, but their lows were so low that they're finishing low indeed.

Markets

With confidence badly shaken by the selling in Treasuries and tension high ahead of next week's

Federal Open Market Committee

meeting next Tuesday, stocks closed not too far from their session lows. It was a very bad day.

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

fell 193.87, or 2%, to 10,913.32, while the broader

S&P 500

dropped 29.76, or 2%, to 1337.80.

The basic rule for the day was the higher the multiple the higher the fall. While the damage on the value and cyclical side of things was limited, traditional growth areas like tech and drugs were hurt badly. The tech-tumescent

Nasdaq Composite Index

fell 54.13, or 2%, to 2527.87, while the

American Stock Exchange Pharmaceutical Index

fell 11.90, or 3%, to 369.50.

Those Uber-growth issues, the .coms, also took their lumps.

TheStreet.com Internet Sector

index fell 12.17, or 2%, to 629.53.

The small-cap

Russell 2000

fell 7.71, or 2%, to 443.13.

The 30-year bond fell 2 6/32 to 90 24/32, lifting the yield up to 5.92%.

Major European indices finished lower, with London's

FTSE

having gotten the worst of it, off about 2.4%. Asian markets slumped overnight, with Hong Kong's

Hang Seng

slipping 198.15 to 12,855.52. Tokyo's

Nikkei

dropped 40.86 to 16,810.39 as Governor

Masaru Hayami

said the

Bank of Japan

will maintain its easy money policy until deflationary concerns have subsided.

For more markets action and news, click

here.

Companies

Boeing

(BA) - Get Report

is cutting between 6,500 and 7,000 jobs at its St. Louis military aircraft plant because of a dearth of orders for F-15 fighter jets. The cuts come after

Lockheed Martin

(LMT) - Get Report

last month won a $3.5 billion contract to supply Greece with F-16s, and Israel postponed a $2.5 billion F-15 order two weeks ago.

Dutch agricultural and construction equipment maker

New Holland

is in merger talks with Wisconsin-based

Case

(CSE)

The Wall Street Journal

reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Personal effects and nutrition product marketer

Nu Skin Enterprises

(NUS) - Get Report

filed with the

Securities and Exchange Commission

for a secondary offering of 10 million Class A common shares, the proceeds going to the family of company founder and Chairman Blake Roney.

Baby Bell

U S West

(USW)

is lifting a bit after

CNBC

reported that it has held merger talks with undersea fiber-optics firm

Global Crossing

(GBLX)

. U S West rose 2 1/4 to 62 1/4, while Global Crossing advanced 15/16 to 61 3/8.

For more news on companies and stocks, click

here.

Tech

@Home

(ATHM) - Get Report

and

Microsoft

(MSFT) - Get Report

last night set a pact to speed up the deployment of broadband Internet services. Under the deal, @Home will use the

Windows NT

operating system in its

@Home Solutions

network, which brings high-speed Internet access to small markets.

Networking gear maker

3Com

(COMS)

is rumored to be a takeover target, according to

Business Week's

Inside Wall Street column. The magazine identified possible bidders as

Ericsson

(ERICY)

and

Lucent

(LU)

For more tech news and commentary, click

here.

General News

The

Labor Department

released its

Consumer Price Index

, which unexpectedly rose 0.7% for the month of April, 0.3 percentage points above expectations and up from the previous month's 0.2% increase. The core rate, which excludes food and energy costs, jumped 0.4%, 0.2 percentage points above the forecast and up from last month's 0.1% jump.

NATO

war planes knocked out electrical power in several districts of Yugoslavia's three largest cities: Belgrade, Nis and Novi Sad. Meanwhile, Yugoslav media claimed that NATO cluster bombs killed as many as 100 civilians in the village of Korisa, Kosovo. The alliance said it was looking into the report.

International

World Bank

President

James Wolfensohn

said the bank will not approve new loans to Russia until the dust settles from Russian President

Boris Yeltsin's

firing of his government two days ago. In the balance hangs a $4.5 billion

International Monetary Fund

loan and another $1.85 billion due from the World Bank.

Nissan Motor

(NSANY)

set plans to spin off its auto transmission development business in July to a new subsidiary called

Transtechnology

For more international news and commentary, click

here.

Elsewhere

After seven seasons,

General Electric

(GE) - Get Report

unit

NBC

has pulled the plug on its critically acclaimed

Homicide: Life on the Street

. The last episode will run next Friday.

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