Flat Quiet Friday

August 25, 2000
Daniel Beighley

Despite a sharp drop in existing home sales that points to continued cooling
in the economy, stocks failed to find any motivation throughout the session
Friday and finished the day flat. Existing home sales for July were 4.79
million, which was significantly below the 5.13 million analysts expected.The
Dow closed slightly in the green while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 both eased by
less than 1/4%.

Volume lightened to anemic levels, with just 1.3 billion shares trading on
the Nasdaq and 674 million trading on the NYSE. Traders described the recent
Nasdaq gains as "grinding" and "sloppy" and felt that the
recent lack of conviction may leave the Nasdaq somewhat vulnerable going into
the September/October period.

"It looks like another slumbering Friday. The market has been grinding
higher for most of the month of August, and today is more of a mixed day. It’s
relatively quiet as one would expect in the summertime," said Gregory Nie,
Senior Vice President of Technical Research, First Union Securities:

"We’re still in a market that has serious questions on the
sustainability on a near-term basis, plus, even at the plodding pace we’ve had,
we’re starting to edge toward a bit of an overbought condition. We’re probably
not going to hold these gains without going through a round of profit taking in
the short term," he added.

According to preliminary numbers, the Nasdaq slipped 10.60 to 4042.68, the
Dow gained 9.89 to 11,192.63, and the S&P 500 eased 1.85 to 1506.46.

Looking to next week, July’s personal income report will be released at 8:30
AM ET on Monday, and analysts look for a 0.4% increase. Then on Tuesday, new
homes sales and consumer confidence will be released.

Flat Quiet Friday

BUY THE FEAR, SELL THE GREED

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