Tuesday, January 19, 1999

Stocks maintain their split, with blue-chips down and techs rallying; Delta and Northwest report.

Author:: Thomas Lepri
Publish date:: Jan 19, 1999 2:15 PM EST

Markets

U.S. stocks were mixed at midafternoon, with blue-chips trading deep in the red and tech and Internet stocks remaining strong.

European bourses closed mixed.

Asian markets closed lower, as Hong Kong's

Hang Seng

dropped 112.43 to 10,290.11, while Japan's

Nikkei 225

dumped 34.62 to 13,770.44.

For more markets action and news, click

here.

Companies

BankAmerica

(BAC) - Get Report

reported fourth-quarter profits of $1.6 billion, down 4.8 % from the previous year and lower than analysts' expectations. Meanwhile,

Chase Manhattan

(CMB)

reported fourth-quarter profits up 31% from 1997.

Delta Air Lines

(DAL) - Get Report

beat estimates with 1999 second-quarter earnings of $194 million, while

Northwest Airlines

(NWAC)

posted a 1998 fourth-quarter loss of $181.3 million, primarily due to its September pilot strike.

Merrill Lynch

(MER)

said its earnings for the fourth quarter of 1998 fell 23%, beating expectations.

Montgomery Securities

founder Thom Weisel said his

Thomas Weisel Partners

should be up and running by Feb. 1. Yesterday

TSC

interviewed Weisel about the launch.

United Parcel Service of America

agreed to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit for $12.1 million.

For more news on companies and stocks, click

here.

Tech

High-speed Internet service provider

@Home

(ATHM) - Get Report

announced that it will buy the search engine

Excite

(XCIT)

for $6.7 billion in stock.

TSC

covered the deal this morning.

Onsale

(ONSL)

soon will begin selling personal computers at wholesale, relying on advertising and fees to make money, according to

The Wall Street Journal

For more tech news and commentary, click

here.

International

British Aerospace

has agreed to buy

General Electric PLC's

Marconi Electronics for about $12.7 billion in a deal that will create a U.K. defense group on the scale of U.S. juggernauts such as

Boeing

(BA) - Get Report

and

Lockheed Martin

(LMT) - Get Report

Japan's

Mitsui Trust & Banking

and

Chuo Trust & Banking

today said they are in preliminary merger talks.

French automaker

Renault

confirmed yesterday that it is considering an alliance with

Nissan Motor

(NSANY)

For more international news and commentary, click

here.

General News

Federal Reserve

Chairman

Alan Greenspan

is scheduled to speak before a

House

committee tomorrow on the state of the economy.

TSC

columnist

James J. Cramer

worries about the chance of a rate hike.

Serb forces continued to ignore the three-month-old cease-fire in Kosovo by shelling the area surrounding the town where 45 ethnic Albanians were massacred.

The hearing to determine whether Chilean Gen.

Augusto Pinochet

can be charged in Britain with human rights violations resumes today in London.

Elsewhere

Say it ain't so, Sammy. The

Congress of Racial Equality

could not award

Sammy Sosa

an International Brotherhood Award for achievement when the Dominican slugger failed to show up for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day dinner. Sosa reportedly had said that his attendance was contingent upon a private jet to and from the

Mike Tyson

Francois Botha

fight in Las Vegas Saturday and a $50,000 donation to a fund for Dominican hurricane victims.