Four-peat?
As the Nasdaq shoots for its fourth win in a row, stocks are marginally higher Friday following a mixed bag of economic numbers
that show an economy that might not be heading off a cliff. That has raised the
possibility that the Fed may cut rates 25 basis points rather than the 50 that
seemed inevitable.
In economic news, the December PPI came in flat while the core PPI was up
0.3%. Analysts had expected a 0.2% increase in the PPI and a 0.1% increase in
the core.
Retail sales rose 0.1% in December which was quite a surprise given the
expected 0.5% decline. This could be taken as evidence that perhaps the slowdown
will not be that severe, and that we could possibly get the proverbial soft
landing that Greenspan would love to see.
The Dow futures are up 17 points, and the Nasdaq futures are up 22 points.
The S&Ps look to open up 2 points while the yield on the 10-year Treasury
has spiked up to 5.21%.
Friday Movers
Telecom is still on the run, and WorldCom
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PowerRating) is set to open at a
two-month high. WorldCom has been on a tear over the past two weeks and is
trading up to 22 1/16 following a Thursday close of 21 15/16.
In B2B, Ariba
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PowerRating) announced better-than-expected earnings after the
bell Thursday, and then a positive round of comments on its conference call had
the stock trading up in after hours action. After a Thursday close of 43 3/8,
though, Ariba is currently trading down to 40 1/2 in pre-market activity.
Comverse Technology
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PowerRating) is poised to build on its 4-day 17 point run
which leaves it within striking distance of its March 2000 all-time high of 123
7/8. Comverse rose 9 1/4 to 110 7/8 on Thursday and is currently trading up to
111 in pre-market activity.
Long one of the few profitable Net-related companies, Internet advertiser
DoubleClick
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PowerRating) posted break-even fourth quarter earnings and warned of
a future slowdown in anticipated revenues. The Street had been expecting a 2
cent per share loss, so DoubleClick is trading up to 13 5/8 following an 11 5/16
close.