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Small Business Stocks Rise Ahead of Fed Announcement
Stocks Rise Ahead of Fed Announcement
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Stocks rose Wednesday morning ahead of the Federal Reserve's announcement on interest rates, expected to be released at 2:15 p.m.
The ISDEX
Shares of S1 Corp.
Internet infrastructure plays resumed their leadership. Juniper Networks
Phone.com
AskJeevse
24/7 Media
Aether Systems
Kforce.com
Buy.com
Priceline.com
eToys
Webhire
Some technical comments on the market: Only an hour to go until the Fed announcement. The market looks good today, but caution is still advised until we get a definitive break from this tight trading range. On gained 15 to 730. The Nasdaq rose 76 to 3935, the Dow added 40 to 10,545, and the S&P 500 tacked on 6 to 1456. Volume was ahead of Tuesday's pace, with 460 million shares changing hands on the NYSE and 725 million on the Nasdaq. Breadth was even on the NYSE, while advancers led decliners 20 to 15 on the Nasdaq. Analysts expect the Fed to leave short-term interest rates unchanged, but they will be watching the accompanying bias statement for hints on future direction. Anything other than no change in rates with a continued tightening bias would be viewed as a surprise. Palm and Cabletron Systems are set to announce earnings after the bell.
was the latest Net stock to rebound from recent woes, leading the ISDEX higher with a gain of 4 5/8 to 24 9/16. CMGI
rose 3 11/16 to 48 7/16. Amazon.com
added 2 1/8 to 38 5/8 after CEO Jeff Bezos defended the company and said it will be able to fund operations from cash flow by the end of the year. Lehman Brothers bond analyst Ravi Suria said recently the company will run out of cash in the first quarter of 2001.
rose 9 1/2 to 135 15/16 after being named one of Lehman Brothers' 10 annual Uncommon Values. Networking stocks figured prominently on the list, with Cisco
, Nortel
and Tellabs
making the cut. Corning
rose 5 15/16 to 258 15/16, SDL Inc.
gained 7 7/8 to 285, and JDS Uniphase
tacked on 4 3/4 to 123 3/4, stemming a sharp recent decline.
added 3 3/8 to 47 9/16 on news of an alliance with Nokia
to provide Internet media technology for future mobile devices.
recouped 1 1/4 to 69 1/4 on news that ALLTELL
will license the company's UP Link Server to enable Internet access for wireless customers.
gained 1/16 to 16 7/8 on news that its natural-language answering service is now available to Palm users.
rose 1/2 to 13 5/8 after unveiling its 24/7 Media Wireless Network that enable advertisers to deliver ads via the company's wireless ad server.
continued to gain on news of its wireless alliance with Microsoft
, adding 3 1/8 to 199 1/8. Merrill Lynch reiterated its Buy rating and $350 price target.
soared 1 11/16 to 6 15/16 after Goldman Sachs added the beaten-down company to its Recommend List, based on valuation. Goldman lowered FY 2000 earnings estimates to 43 cents a share from 50 cents, and lowered its price target from $20 to $15. Goldman expects a long-term growth rate of 22.5%.
gained 1/8 to 5 5/32 despite a USB Piper Jaffray downgrade from Strong Buy to Buy. The firm said Buy.com may miss revenue estimates. The firm also downgraded and reduced estimates for Ameritrade
, which gained 1/8 to 12 1/8.
gained 3/4 to 40 3/4 on news that the company will expand into Europe.
added 1/2 to 5 9/16 on an ABN AMRO Outperform rating and $12 price target.
gained on news of a $16 million investment led by Korn/Ferry International and Softbank.