Monday February 14, 7:26 am Eastern Time
Dow seen steady, small bounce for techs predicted
LONDON, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Wall Street stocks were expected to open mixed on Monday, with little in the
way of major company or economic news to give the market early direction, London dealers said.
They said, however, technology issues could have a small bounce after the two percent drop by the Nasdaq
composite index on Friday.
The March S&P 500 index future traded around 2.5 points above its estimated fair value of 1,393 by 1124 GMT, indicating steady open by the
Dow Jones average.
The March Nasdaq future meanwhile gained eight points.
Cisco Systems Inc (NasdaqNM:CSCO - news) (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: CSCO.F) gained $1-1/2 to $132-7/16 in Europe despite a
cautious report in Barron's weekly. The newspaper said the Internet hardware maker's share price was discounting huge increases in profits over the
next decade and was perhaps looking stretched.
Miscrosoft Corp (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: MSFT.F) nudged up $11/16 to around $100-5/8, having slipped
over $6 on Friday, after a study questioned whether the company's new Windows 2000 operating system, due to be released next week, could
interact smoothly with other software.
Elsewhere, dealers said the market was looking ahead to the semi-annual Humphrey-Hawkins testimony on monetary policy from Federal Reserve
Chairman Alan Greenspan due on Thursday, with investors watching for clues as to how hawkish Greenspan now is over interest rates after recent
reports of strong economic data.
They said the market was predicting a 25 basis-points interest rate hike on March 21 but uncertainty over monetary policy beyond that date was
undermining share prices.
Dealers added producer prices data scheduled for Thursday and consumer prices figures on Friday were also likely to be key influences on stocks
this week.
``The focus is very much on events towards the end of the week,'' said a London dealer. ``But for the moment there is no news to stop the market's
volatility.''
Dow seen steady, small bounce for techs predicted
LONDON, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Wall Street stocks were expected to open mixed on Monday, with little in the
way of major company or economic news to give the market early direction, London dealers said.
They said, however, technology issues could have a small bounce after the two percent drop by the Nasdaq
composite index on Friday.
The March S&P 500 index future traded around 2.5 points above its estimated fair value of 1,393 by 1124 GMT, indicating steady open by the
Dow Jones average.
The March Nasdaq future meanwhile gained eight points.
Cisco Systems Inc (NasdaqNM:CSCO - news) (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: CSCO.F) gained $1-1/2 to $132-7/16 in Europe despite a
cautious report in Barron's weekly. The newspaper said the Internet hardware maker's share price was discounting huge increases in profits over the
next decade and was perhaps looking stretched.
Miscrosoft Corp (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: MSFT.F) nudged up $11/16 to around $100-5/8, having slipped
over $6 on Friday, after a study questioned whether the company's new Windows 2000 operating system, due to be released next week, could
interact smoothly with other software.
Elsewhere, dealers said the market was looking ahead to the semi-annual Humphrey-Hawkins testimony on monetary policy from Federal Reserve
Chairman Alan Greenspan due on Thursday, with investors watching for clues as to how hawkish Greenspan now is over interest rates after recent
reports of strong economic data.
They said the market was predicting a 25 basis-points interest rate hike on March 21 but uncertainty over monetary policy beyond that date was
undermining share prices.
Dealers added producer prices data scheduled for Thursday and consumer prices figures on Friday were also likely to be key influences on stocks
this week.
``The focus is very much on events towards the end of the week,'' said a London dealer. ``But for the moment there is no news to stop the market's
volatility.''
