Is the Stock market headed lower......

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

NEW YORK, Sept 24 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were expected to open flat to lower on Friday as Wall Street weighed the damage from a late-session slide that pounded the high-profile technology sector.

Analysts said U.S. markets, licking their wounds from a drubbing that has dropped the blue-chip Dow industrials <.DJI> almost 5 percent since Monday, still could head lower before reaching technical support levels.

"I don't think we've made a bottom," said Bill Meehan, chief market analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald in Darien, Conn.

"If we do start to bring it back (at the opening) I think we will see selling" into any strength, he said.

Wall Street nosedived with about an hour left in the session on Thursday after Microsoft Corp. President Steve Ballmer said computer and computer-related stocks were overvalued, including Microsoft's.

Technology stocks, long the darling of Wall Street investors, led the drop. The technology-larded Nasdaq composite posted its fourth-worst point loss, falling 108.33 points, or 3.79 percent, to 2749.83.

The Dow industrials notched up their second 200-point loss of the week. The marquee index was off 205.48 points, or 1.95 percent, to 10.318.59.

Peter Cardillo, director of research at Westfalia Investments, said the market likely would open flat to lower.

"Last night's decline tested the lower end of our support," he said.

Analysts said the next key level of support for U.S. markets was at about 1,267 points on the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index <.SPX>. The index broke through a key support level at 1,300 late Thursday and closed at 1,280.

In corporate news, investors will focus on a Wall Street Journal report that MCI WorldCom Inc. , the No. 2 U.S. long-distance carrier, has been in merger talks with the No. 3 carrier, Sprint Corp.

Personal insurance company Allstate Corp. also warned it expected a decline in its third-quarter earnings.

Tokyo's Nikkei average <.N225> closed down 454.03 points, or 2.62 percent, at 16,871.73. The market was hit by rising pressure on the yen as well as vulnerability of Wall Street stocks.

London's FTSE 100 gauge <.FTSE> was off 25.5 points, or 0.43 percent, at 5944.2.

The dollar strengthened against the yen to 104.47 bid. The euro slipped slightly to $1.0496 bid.

The U.S. Treasury 30-year bond was up 3/32 to yield 5.984 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 futures index for December was off 4 points at 1287.

The Wall Street Journal's Heard on the Street column said the economic consequences of Taiwan's earthquake were beginning to hit home in New York markets.

-- y2k dave (xsdaa111@hotmail.com), September 24, 1999

Answers

The best part about watching a car race is the crashes, we all know it. I feel the same about the stock market right now, I'm just waiting for a pile up on the #3 turn.

-- CygnusXI (noburnt@toast.net), September 24, 1999.

Y2k Dave,

Is this a Trick question?

-- David Butts (dciinc@aol.com), September 24, 1999.


Can the stock market go LOWER???????

Is the Pope Catholic? Does the bear shit in the woods?

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), September 24, 1999.

Of course this is a trick question. Nasdaq down 50+ and its not even noon. There is still plenty of time to buy on the dips.. Next all the market spinmasters(CNBC and BLOOMBERG TV) will say the correction is over and its time to start buying. Yea Right!

-- y2k dave (xsdaa111@hotmail.com), September 24, 1999.

Make that:

DOW: -116 NASDAQ: -64 S&P: -16.29

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), September 24, 1999.



Almost Real-Time Market Watch

-- h (h@h.h), September 24, 1999.

"I don't think we've made a bottom," said Bill Meehan, chief market analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald in Darien, Conn.

Cantor Fitzgerald

-- i (i@i.i), September 24, 1999.


These market threads are spreading like wild fire, could we keep all market chat on one thread?

-- Chris (#$%^&@pond.com), September 24, 1999.

These are the good times. Enjoy them while they last.

Soon there will be many fluctuations downward, and we will watch in shock as many investors panic.

Don't be one of them.

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), September 24, 1999.


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