|
Wall St. stalled by Greenspan
|
 |
July 28, 1999: 10:13 a.m. ET
Stocks linger in narrow range, awaiting Fed chief's Senate testimony
By Staff Writer Malina Poshtova Zang
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - U.S. stocks were mixed early Wednesday as investors took profits following the previous day's rally and anxiously awaited the second part of Alan Greenspan's Capitol Hill testimony on the economy and interest rates.
Shortly before 10 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones industrial average was 25.65 points lower at 10,953.39. Market breadth on the New York Stock Exchange was negative, with losers ahead of gainers by 1,168 to 941, as trading volume rose to a limited 76 million shares.
The Nasdaq composite index inched up 0.95 to 2,680.28 and the S&P 500 index edged down 2.86 to 1,359.98.
The Federal Reserve chairman was scheduled to begin the second leg of his semi-annual Humphrey-Hawkins testimony before the Senate Banking Committee at 10 a.m. ET, and was expected to deliver the same statement he gave the House Banking Committee a week earlier.
That statement roiled financial markets and sent both stocks and bonds sharply lower for days until Tuesday's rally, with Greenspan saying the Fed is ready to act forcefully and raise interest rates at the first sight of rising inflation.
The bond market was quiet, lingering near unchanged levels and eagerly awaiting Greenspan's question and answer session at the Senate, from which investors hope to gain more insight into the central bank's position on interest rates.
The market cut down its slight losses from earlier in the morning, following the release of a smaller-than-expected increase in durable goods orders in June. The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond fell 4/32 of a point in price, for a yield of 6.02 percent, up slightly from 6.01 percent at the market close Tuesday.
The dollar eased against the yen but gained a little ground against the euro.
Earnings and deals rule the day
Investors in the stock market opted to pay attention to the shares of companies releasing earnings or involved in deals while awaiting Greenspan's testimony.
Among the day's winners, shares of Mylex (MYLX), a maker of high-performance computer storage hardware and software, rallied 1-7/16, or more than 14 percent, to 11-11/16 on news IBM (IBM) is buying the company for $240 million in cash.
On the earnings front, market players battered the stock of e-Toys (ETYS), pushing it down 2-1/32 to 37-1/4, after late Tuesday the Internet retailer reported a much larger fiscal first quarter loss than a year earlier.
The Street.com (TSCM), another Internet-related stock, also suffered a decline, falling 1-1/4 to 30-1/2 even after the financial Web site reported a smaller-than-expected second-quarter loss.
But shares of Dow component DuPont (DD) rose 13/16 to 72-15/16 on news profits at the chemical conglomerate exceeded expectations in the second quarter. 
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
