Forum Archive Index - May 2000

["Osbert Sun" <osbert.sun@xtra.co.nz>]

Tuesday May 30, 7:00 am Eastern Time

U.S. stocks seen higher in Europe, techs rally

LONDON, May 30 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were seen opening higher on Tuesday, as cell phone equipment maker Qualcomm Inc (NasdaqNM:QCOM - news). and other technology stocks rally from last week's losses, dealers said.

With June futures on the Dow Jones average and the Nasdaq Composite both showing solid gains, dealers said Wall Street looked set to recover from its decline of the past two weeks.

The Dow future was up 10.0 points at 1,391.3 by 1040 GMT, while the Nasdaq jumped 67.0 points to 3,197.0.

A recovery in Qualcomm after last week's heavy losses was one signal of investors prepared to pick up bargains in sold off tech areas of the market, dealers said.

On Instinet, Qualcom traded up $1-1/2 at $67-1/2.

Photocopier giant Xerox Corp. (NYSE:XRX - news) was another name in the frame after a report in Barron's financial weekly said the company could be poised for a comeback after disappointing profits.

The paper said analysts that follow the company expected more than 18 percent earnings growth in 2001 to $2.30 a share, which could give the stock a value of $50 by the middle of next year. Xerox closed at $25-7/16 on Friday.

Elsewhere dealers said interest was likely to be focused on telecom and technology stocks after signs of a recovery in the key sectors in Europe.

``All of sudden people seem to have decided these areas look interesting again...but we have some important economic figures this week and people may decide to wait and see what they show,'' said a dealer at one leading brokerage.

Key report of the week looked set to be Friday's jobs data, traditionally the most market sensitive of monthly economic indicators. Before that comes Tuesday's consumer confidence reort for May and Thursday's purchasing managers figures for the same day.

On Friday, stocks ended slightly lower in thin volume before the extended holiday weekend.

The Nasdaq (^IXIC - news) closed nearly unchanged, off just 0.24 of a point, or 0.01 percent, at 3,205.11, after a week in which it lost 185 points as investors pulled cash out of technology leaders.

The Dow industrial average (^DJI - news) closed down 24.68 points or 0.24 percent at 10,299.24 after bobbing in and out of positive territory all day. The Dow was off 328 points for the week.