- NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks
fell across the board in late afternoon on Monday, with the Nasdaq at new
6-year lows, as a scheduled speech by President Bush on Iraq later in the
day added to worries over battered corporate profits and the strength of
the world's largest economy.
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- "There is a lot of uncertainty about President Bush's
speech tonight. That's what got the market spooked," said Robert Mikkelsen,
head of institutional sales and trading for Nasdaq stocks at The Advest
Group Inc. "We're kicking off the earnings season and that got people
concerned, not so much the numbers to be reported but what people will
say about forward guidance."
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- Weighing on sentiment was as a profit warning from retailer
Sears, Roebuck and Co. S.N , which sent its shares down nearly 13 percent
and slammed rivals or shares in the same sector. Gloomy brokerage house
forecasts for high-tech giants, including Internet gear maker Cisco Systems
Inc. CSCO.O slammed issues in the beleaguered sector.
-
- The tech-packed Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC dipped 12.04
points, or 1.06 percent, to 1,127.86, trading at levels last seen in September
1996.
-
- The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial average .DJI , which
moved either side of unchanged throughout the session, was last down 41.13
points, or 0.55 percent, at 7,487.27. The broader Standard & Poor's
500 Index .SPX lost 7.98 points, or 1 percent, to 792.60.
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- Bush is to deliver a televised speech on Iraq at 8:01
p.m. EDT to rally Americans behind a possible war on Iraq. War talk has
dogged the market for weeks as investors worry that a military strike could
imperil the frail U.S. economic recovery.
-
- The market enjoyed a fleeting rally at midday as traders
hoped for an early resolution to the U.S. West Coast port lockout. Bush
intervened on Monday by appointing a fact-finding board of inquiry, taking
the first step toward forcing an end to the dispute, now more than a week
old.
-
- Some traders pegged the advance also to remarks by Federal
Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan who said on Monday that despite a sharp
climb in business failures and investor losses in recent years, the U.S.
financial system remains in good shape.
-
- "We had a bit of a rally on comments from Greenspan,
but rallies don't have staying power. There's a whole bunch of people looking
to sell into strength," Mikkelsen said. "Greenspan had some positive
comments on the banks. Although they did not help the bank stocks, they
got the market going."
-
- Cisco fell 42 cents to $9.04, or 4.5 percent, and ranked
as the most active share on the Nasdaq. Deutsche Banc Securities cut its
fiscal second-quarter and full-year earnings estimates for Cisco, citing
a slowdown in U.S. economic activity. Cisco rival Juniper Networks JNPR.O
lost 22.70 cents at $4.583.
-
- Sears, the No. 4 U.S. retailer, sank $4.79 to $32.85.
Sears warned that third-quarter profits would be below Wall Street expectations
as its credit card business -- a key profit driver -- showed signs of losing
steam in a slumping economy.
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- The S&P retail index .RLX was down nearly 3 percent.
-
- Chip giant Intel Corp. INTC.O rose 29 cents to $14. Chief
Executive Craig Barrett of Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, said on
Sunday he was more optimistic than ever about the tech sector and saw the
current crisis ending by early 2003.
-
- On a less rosy note, Prudential Securities cut its investment
rating on the semiconductor industry and reduced the communications semiconductor
industry, saying it now expects a more "muted" recovery in semiconductors,
particularly for those exposed to the communications end markets.
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- Prudential cut ratings on LSI Logic Corp. LSI.N , Broadcom
Corp. BRCM.O and others and cut price targets, estimates or both for Texas
Instruments Inc. TXN.N , and others.
-
- The Philadelphia semiconductor index .SOXX fell 1.80
percent.
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- Big movers included beleaguered Dutch chip maker ASML
ASML.AS ASML.O , which fell sharply both in Amsterdam and on the Nasdaq,
after investment bank UBS Warburg cut its rating on the stock. ASML was
down 95 cents at $5.05, nearly 16 percent.
-
- The two largest athletic shoe makers, Nike Inc. NKE.N
and Reebok International Ltd. RBK.N , fell as the lockout of West Coast
dock workers and lingering concerns about the economy fueled investor concerns.
Nike fell $1.87 to $40.07 and Reebok lost 88 cents at $22.30.
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- Arkansas Best Inc. ABFS.O fell $1.97, or 6.6 percent,
to $27.64. Morgan Stanley cut its investment rating on the long-haul transporter
of less-than-truckload shipments to "equal-weight" from "overweight."
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