Gearing UP For The Fourth

Monday
morning’s trading began
slowly
in the wake of Friday’s trading system failures on the
Nasdaq. The system glitch was caused by a Technician at Worldcom
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who was running a diagnostic test during the last hour of trading, on the last
day of the quarter — and the day the Russell 2000 was scheduled to be rebalanced.

Unaffected by any glitches Monday, the
trading session ended mixed. However during today’s trading session 65 stocks on
the Nasdaq were adjusted from Friday’s close.

The Dow Jones Industrials closed up
0.8%, while the Nasdaq Composite traded lower by 0.5%. In the past few
years, going into the July 4th holiday, the major indexes have typically moved
higher.

Stocks leading the indexes higher were
Earthgrains Co.
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which shot up 53.1% after Sara Lee Corp.
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announced that it would buy the company for approximately $1.7 billion in cash.
Earthgrains is the No. 2 bakery in the United States. The acquisition
will allow Sara Lee to enter the fresh breads and refrigerated dough arena.

Hotjobs.com
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moved
higher in the session 38.7%, after Monster.com’s parent company TMP Worldwide
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announced that is would acquire its competitor in a deal worth $460 million.

USA Education
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rose 3.1%
after student loan servicer Sallie Mae announced that Federal Stafford loans
which were issued on or after July 1 1998, had historically low interest rates.
Interest rates on these federally subsidized loans have fallen from 8.19% to
5.99%.

Dendrite International Inc.
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gained 44.0%.

The Semiconductor Index
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led in the green column as the index rose 1.8%.

After losing ground on Friday, the
Pharmaceutical Index
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gained some of the losses back by tacking
on 1.7%.

Close behind was the Healthcare Index
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which also made up some ground after Fridays loss, by rising
1.5%.

Lightbridge Inc.
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shares
were pummeled after the company announced that Q2 earnings are expected to fall
below analysts’ expectations. The company expects earnings to be between 19 to 20
cents, while analysts’ expectations were for a range between 21 to 22 cents per
share with a consensus of 21 cents according to Thomson Financial/First
Call. Lightbridge lost 25.0%

NYFIX
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fell 19.9%.

Software solutions provider Retek Inc
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shed 16.3%

The Biotechnology Index
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lost 1.7% as the index was assisted by Guilford Pharmaceuticals
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which tumbled 17.0%.

Sipex
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lost 36.3%
after announcing after the close Friday, that it expects to cut its workforce by
about 15%.

The Gold & Silver Index
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lost 3.4%, leading individual sectors in the losing column.

Also shedding some points were the Oil
Services Index
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which fell 2.6% and the Airline Index
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which lost 1.8%.