Thursday, April 29, 1999

Markets

John Henry is a steel trading man, and his heart hasn't given out yet.

Newly invigorated cyclicals joined oil and financial stocks in forcing the

Dow Jones Industrial Average

to another record close, up 32.93 to 10,878.38. But slumping tech and Net stocks knocked the

Nasdaq Composite Index

down 22.40 to 2527.97.

Other major proxies also fell. The

S&P 500

lost 8.08 to 1342.83; the small-cap

Russell 2000

dropped 0.68 to 432.85; and

TheStreet.com Internet Sector

shed 10.49 to 647.41.

The bond market rallied on encouraging employment data from the

Labor Department

(see below).

Major European indices finished lower, while Hong Kong's

Hang Seng

rose 46.31 to 13,179.70. Tokyo markets were closed for a holiday.

For more markets action and news, click

here.

Companies

Tyco International

(TYC)

electrical and electronics equipment subsidiary

AMP

set plans to cut about 8,000 jobs, or 15% of its total workforce.

Pharmaceutical research firm

Covance

(CVD)

is buying rival

Paraxel International

(PRXL)

in an $827 million stock deal that will form the world's largest drug development services firm. Paraxel shareholders will receive 1.184 Covance shares for each share of Paraxel, or $32.56 a share, based on yesterday's closing prices.

MCI WorldCom

(WCOM)

posted first-quarter earnings of 36 cents a share, 2 cents better than the 26-analyst consensus and up from last year's 10 cents.

Jack E. Little is stepping down as president and CEO of

Shell Oil

effective June 30. He'll be succeeded by

Royal Dutch Petroleum's

(RD)

managing director, Steven L. Miller, who will also replace Mark Moody-Stuart as Shell's chairman. Separately, Shell Oil subsidiary Shell Exploration and Production set plans to sell 22 production fields and 16 exploration leases to

Apache

(APA) - Get Report

for $715 million in cash and 1 million shares of stock.

Former conglomerate

Tenneco

(TEN) - Get Report

set plans to separate its two remaining businesses, auto parts and specialty packaging. The company will spin off its auto parts operations in a tax-free distribution to shareholders.

U.K. media firm

United News & Media

(UNEWY)

, owner of

PR Newswire

and the British

Express

and

Daily Star

newspapers, agreed to buy high-tech publisher

CMP Media

(CMPX)

for $920 million in cash, or $39 a share.

For more news on companies and stocks, click

here.

Tech

Amazon.com

(AMZN) - Get Report

reported a first-quarter loss of 23 cents a share, 6 cents better than the 21-analyst First Call estimate but deeper than the year-ago loss of 7 cents. Revenue more than tripled, to $294 million from $87 million. But the company's warning of deeper operating losses to come sent the stock tumbling. Amazon lost 25 9/16 to 168, or 13.2%.

TheStreet.com

looked at Amazon's earnings report in a

story last night.

America Online

(AOL)

Chairman

Stephen Case

suggested that the company may support

Comcast

(CMCSK)

in its quest to outbid

AT&T

(T) - Get Report

for

MediaOne

(UMG)

, according to

The Washington Post

.

MarketWatch.com

(MKTW)

set plans to buy financial charting Web site

BigCharts

for $160 million in stock and $6 million in cash.

For more tech news and commentary, click

here.

General News

Yugoslavia filed

World Court

suits against 10

NATO

members today, charging that the alliance's bombing campaign violates international law. Belgrade asked the court to call for a halt to the airstrikes while the case is being considered, which could take months or even years. Meanwhile, NATO acknowledged today that a missile fired by one of its planes accidentally struck a suburb in Bulgaria.

The Labor Department released figures showing initial jobless claims at 294,000 for the week ended April 24, down 20,000 from the previous week and 14,000 fewer than economists' forecast. The department also released its

employment cost index

for the first quarter of 1999; the index rose a scant 0.4%, down three-tenths of a percent from the previous quarter and four-tenths lower than the forecast.

The

International Monetary Fund

yesterday agreed to tide Russia over with a further $4.5 billion. Moscow will use the loan to pay the interest on the $20 billion the IMF has lent it over the past eight years. The loan is contingent on an overhaul of Russia's banking system and an outside audit of its central bank to determine what happened to previous IMF funds.

International

Airtours

, the U.K.'s second-largest tour operator, made a $1.37 billion takeover offer for No. 3

First Choice Holidays

, which has already agreed to a lower offer from Switzerland's

Kuoni Reisen

. Tour industry leader

Thomson Travel

is likely to enter the bidding war, having said today that it will not surrender its pole position.

For more international news and commentary, click

here.

Elsewhere

Issuing new guidelines for reporting on princes

William

and

Henry

, Britain's

Press Complaints Commission

urged Buckingham Palace to make the teen heartthrobs more available to the public. "They will need to try and offer real stories of interest about the princes as well as photo opportunities," said the commission, which doubtless hopes its request will result in a corresponding reduction in the number of such stories on and opportunities for

Elton John

.

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