It appears that funds are starting to buy as of last week.
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - Initially hamstrung by a round of profit warnings from bellwethers in the group, the tech sector staged a turnaround late in the day, allowing the Nasdaq to squeak out a gain Friday. Still, hurt by four days of heavy selling, the Nasdaq remained at 26-month lows.
"We saw a short-covering bounce," said Bryan Piskorowski, strategist at Prudential Securities, of the Nasdaq's late-session rise. He added, however, that investors remain noncommittal and unwilling to step up to the plate with follow-through buying.
"They liked Nasdaq at 5,000 and now they hate it near 2,000. For the first time in 2 and a half years you can own tech stocks [at more attractive] valuations," observed Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co. Long-term investors can take advantage of this situation, he said, though the market will likely remain dicey in the near term. In the tech space, only software issues ended slightly in the red as all other sectors retraced earlier losses in a swift, late-day move into the plus column. Inside the broad market, biotech stocks rallied heartily while gold shares ended higher for a third straight session. Moving lower were brokerage, chemical, natural gas, utility, drug, consumer and oil service issues.
The Dow Jones Industrials Average ($DJ: news, msgs) gave up 84.91 points, or 0.8 percent, to 10,441.90 after being down as much as 232 points earlier in the day. Leading the blue-chip barometer on the downside: IBM, Walt Disney, DuPont, AT&T, J.P. Morgan Chase and Honeywell. Among the Dow's upside movers were Eastman Kodak, Microsoft, General Motors and SBC Communications.
IBM (IBM: news, msgs), off 4.5 percent to $104, saw its 2001 earnings estimate cut by Salomon Smith Barney to $5 from $5.15 in the aftermath of Sun Micro's profit warning. The brokerage firm also trimmed revenue estimates for the year. In a follow-up to its morning note, SSB added that it believes IBM can meet - but not beat - Wall Street's estimates. "At its current prices, IBM trades at a 10 percent discount to the broader market."
The Nasdaq Composite ($COMPQ: news, msgs) added 17.55 points, or 0.8 percent, to 2,262.51 after falling as much as 88 points at its nadir, while the Nasdaq 100 Index ($NDX: news, msgs) rose 23.64 points, or 1.2 percent, to 2,056.06.
The Nasdaq 100 is down 21 percent since the start of the month after the bulls made a valiant effort to defend the index in January, pushing it 11 percent higher. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, has fallen 18 percent in February. The index is down a staggering 56 percent from its all-time high set on March 10, 2000 and is hovering at levels not seen since December 1998. "If there will be an inter-meeting rate cut - which we don't expect -- it'll highly depend on the data released over the next couple of weeks," Boockvar opined. Next week's economic kingpin is the February National Association of Purchasing Management Index. And the employment report will be released in two weeks.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($SPX: news, msgs) fell 0.6 percent while the Russell 2000 Index ($RUT: news, msgs) of small-capitalization stocks ended up 0.19 point. Volume was heavy at 1.24 billion on the NYSE and at 2.24 billion on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Market breadth was negative throughout the session, with decliners outpacing advancers by 17 to 13 on the NYSE and by 21 to 17 on the Nasdaq.
Separately, Trim Tabs said all equity funds had inflows of $1.3 billion over the four business days ending Feb. 21 vs. outflows of $1.4 billion during the previous week. Equity funds investing primarily in U.S. stocks had inflows of $2.7 billion compared with outflows of $1.9 billion the prior week.
rehad enough snow and cold to last for one lifetime LOL We just bought 14 acres in the mountains of Utah. Moving next year from San Diego!!!! We are sll so different...or maybe we just don't know what we are getting into! Freeus
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