Better Days Ahead?
Indices rallied in the final hour of trading following the FOMC’s 50-basis-point interest rate
cut, an attempt to dodge a looming recession in the wake of
the terrorist attacks September 11 on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The
hair cut lowered the key short-term rate to 2.5%, the lowest it has been since
the days of Camelot in the Kennedy White House.
In a similar move, the Fed dropped the discount rate by the same amount,
lowering it to 2%.
Chairman Alan Greenspan and company continue to work toward keeping the US
out of recession — which has not reared its head in the country’s economy since
the beginning of the 1990s — making those motives clear in the post-meeting
statement. They specifically targeted the “uncertainty that was
substantially heightened” and failing confidence in the aftermath of the
attacks.
The Dow Industrials
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low, closing on its high at 8946.09. The Nasdaq Composite
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in sympathy, gaining more than 10 points in the final hour of trading to end the
session up 11.56 at 1492.02, and the S&P 500
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12.69 to finish at 1051.24.
Shares of Andrx Corp.
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introduction into the Nasdaq 100
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2.90 to close at 71.90.
Biotechs managed to participate in the last-hour surge, with Protein
Design Labs
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up 1.40 at 33.62.
The previously weak software sector got a boost from the projections that
giants Microsoft
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meet their respective earnings estimates for Q3. MSFT ended up 1.21 at 53.00,
while SEBL gained 1.98 to end the day at 15.03.
Beaten down Professional Detailing
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after announcing an agreement with Eli Lilly
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Evista osteoporosis drug. PDII closed at 28.62, up 6.37.