Wednesday, May 26, 1999
Markets
Well, that certainly didn't make any sense.
Not if you believe the conventional wisdom about the imminent Internet bear market, at any rate. Tech and Net shares dropped hard at the open, but gathered strength thereafter, closing sharply higher. Financials also rebounded strongly from their recent funk.
On strength in
J.P. Morgan
(JPM) - Get Report
,
American Express
(AXP) - Get Report
and
IBM
(IBM) - Get Report
, the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
rocketed 171.37 to 10,702.46; the
Nasdaq Composite Index
shot up 42.80 to 2423.70; the
S&P 500
added 20.09 to 1304.49; the smallish-cap
Russell 2000
gained 0.96 to 435.41; and
TheStreet.com Internet Sector
index grew 21.72 to 572.02.
The big European indices finished mixed, with Germany's
Dax
and the Paris
CAC
modestly higher but London's
FTSE
closing a tad below break-even. In Brazil, the volatile
Bovespa
was rocketing up 4.6% in late afternoon trading.
Asian markets moved higher overnight, as Hong Kong's
Hang Seng
gained 62.25 to 12,409.16 and Tokyo's
Nikkei
added 16.29 to 16,230.52.
More markets action and news is available in
TSC's
Markets section.
Companies
Cable TV firm
Charter Communications
, a subsidiary of
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
co-founder Paul Allen's umbrella company
Vulcan Northwest
, is buying closely held
Falcon Cable
for $3.6 billion in cash, stock and assumed debt.
Gasoline retailer and convenience-store operator
Evans Systems
(EVSI) - Get Report
was getting the snot knocked out of it on the heels of Monday's lackluster earnings report and a report in
The Wall Street Journal's
Texas Journal
section focusing on the company's bloated market capitalization. The stock sank 13 1/2, or 51.4%, to 12 13/16.
RV and trailer-home maker
Fleetwood Enterprises
(FLE)
posted fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of 66 cents a share, 5 cents ahead of the
First Call
four-analyst estimate but down from the year-ago 81 cents.
Teen clothier and accessorizer
Pacific Sunwear of California
(PSUN)
set a 3-for-2 stock split for shareholders of record June 8, payable June 18.
More news on companies and stocks is available in
TSC's
Stock News section.
Tech
AT&T
(T) - Get Report
,
Matsushita Electric Industrial
(MC) - Get Report
,
Bertelsmann
unit
BMG Entertainment
and
Seagram
(VO) - Get Report
subsidiary
Universal Music
formed an alliance to develop a technology called Electronic Media Distribution, which would allow secure distribution of music and other media over the Web.
A host of Internet companies met with mixed success in their first day of trading today.
Juno Online Services
(JWEB:Nasdaq) losing 1 3/8, or 10.6%, to 11 5/8 after pricing last night at 13; electronic company filings provider
Edgar Online
(EDGR:Nasdaq) was gained a teenie to 9 9/16; and
Ziplink
(ZIPL:Nasdaq) fell 1 5/8, or 11.6%, to 12 3/8. Faring better were
Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette
(DLJ)
unit
DLJdirect
(DIR:NYSE), up 10 1/8, or 50.6%, to 30 1/8 and Web portal
StarMedia Networks
(STRM:Nasdaq), up 11, or 73.3%, to 26 1/16.
TheStreet.com
focused on DLJdirect in a story
this morning and wrote about Juno in a story
yesterday.
More tech news and commentary is available in
TSC's
Tech Stocks section.
General News
The
Census Bureau
released figures showing durable goods orders declining 2.3% for April, more than 2.5 percentage points below economists' forecasts and down from a revised increase of 2.7% in March. Excluding the transportation sector, factory orders rose 0.9% in April, beating the forecast 0.1% and down from last month's 2.0%
Mediators from Russia, the U.S., Finland and Greece meet today to discuss diplomatic solutions to the crisis in Kosovo. But
NATO
continues to bomb Serbian targets, having earlier today launched what it called its most ambitious air strikes yet, flying a conflict-high 284 attack sorties. Separately, Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic
has been indicted for war crimes by the
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
, according to a
Reuters
report citing a source close to the ICTY.
Indian aircraft attacked suspected guerillas in Kashmir, the hotly disputed province on the border of India and Pakistan. Pakistan claimed that India bombed its territory in the raid, and a Pakistani army spokesman said his country is prepared for "all eventualities."
International
Russia asked the London Club of commercial bank creditors for a six-month extension on an $850 million debt payment due June 2. Russia is meeting with those creditors to restructure interest payments on Soviet-era debts.
More international news and commentary is available in
TSC's
International section.
Elsewhere
Now we can finally focus on the rich content of
The Jerry Springer Show
without all those distractions. Syndicator
Studios USA
has told the talk show that it would tolerate "no violence, physical confrontation or profanity" in its programming, and that new programs and reruns not meeting the new standard would be edited accordingly. Oh, they're serious -- Studios USA this week replaced an episode titled "Guess What? I'm Bisexual" with a show about tall people.
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really
dumb question? Even better. Send it to
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