New vs. Old Economy: The Sequel
Blue chips rallied Thursday in a move that was eerily reminiscent of last
year’s de-coupling of the New and Old Economy stocks. The Dow managed to extend
its five session run as it booked a solid 1.2% gain to its highest level in
nearly a month. The S&P 500 finished up just 0.2%.
The blue chip gains came at the expense of technology stocks, as bad news out
of Internet giant Yahoo!
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day, the Nasdaq sank 2.4%.
Volume remained subdued, as just 1.7 billion shares traded on the Nasdaq and
1.1 billion shares traded on the NYSE.
“Today’s activity is almost a continuation of yesterday, which is
digestion of some of the recent gains. From the positive side, there’s no heavy
selling in technology and the Nasdaq. Unfortunately, from the negative side,
there’s no enthusiasm or buying,” said Dennis Jarrett, Chief Market
Analyst, Jarrett Investment Research.
“I don’t believe Greenspan will do anything before the March 20 Fed
meeting regardless of what the employment numbers show tomorrow. Right now,
though, the market is just sort of dead in the water,” he added.
Top sectors were gold and silver
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up 1.6%, insurance
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down 1.5%.
Weakest sectors were biotechs
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down 2.9%, and Internets
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Among techs avoiding the selloff were JDS Uniphase
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1 3/16 to 28 1/8, and Tellabs
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Top Dow gainers were 3M
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3.6%, General Motors
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3.4%. The big loser in the Dow was Microsoft
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Among old economy winners were Texaco
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52-week high on heavier-than-average volume. Also strong was Caterpillar
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which gained .99 to 47.79 on nearly double average volume.
Looking to Friday, the much-anticipated February employment report will be
released at 8:30 AM ET. Analysts expect the unemployment rate to hold steady at
4.2%, hourly wages to rise by 0.3%, and 88,000 new jobs to have been created.