When Bad News Is Bullish…
A rally in semiconductors spurred the
Nasdaq into the plus column Thursday while the Dow Jones Industrials treaded
water, held back by Philip Morris.
The Nasdaq Composite rose 2.1%. The
Dow flatlined, eking out a paper-thin rise of 0.2%.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index
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Testifying to the strength of the rally was the action in Broadcom, which rose
13.1% despite an overnight revenue warning. Just as selling off on positive news
is a bearish sign, buying in spite of negative news can verify strength in a
group.
Cabot Microelectronics
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added 7.6%. Applied Micro Circuits
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Unterberg analyst said he had the impression from management that order
cancellations have declined. The president of Advanced Micro Circuit
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said AMD expected to see “modest” sales growth in 2001 and make
inroads into market share in microprocessors and flash memory. AMD shares gained
6.7%.
Among the other sectors, the AMEX
Internet Index
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1.2%.
On the downside, the Philadelphia Oil
Service Index
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1.1%.
Among other stocks, VeriSign
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lost 8.6%. A Dow Jones report profiled Britain’s Global Name Registry Ltd.,
which is developing new Internet domains — which include “.biz,”
“.info” and “.museum” — to compete with VeriSign, the
central administrator of the “.com” suffix.
PeopleSoft
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Brinker International
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operator reported comparable restaurant sales rose 2.7%. RPM
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of industrial and consumer product coatings, moved up 8.5%.
Among the Dow winners, Microsoft
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picked up 1.8%, Home Depot
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2.0%. The Dow losers included Philip Morris
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jury late Wednesday awarded a smoker with incurable lung and brain cancer $3
billion in his lawsuit against the tobacco company. J.P. Morgan
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up 2.5%, American Express
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