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Wall St. sees stable rates
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October 5, 1999: 11:47 a.m. ET
Stocks rise as investors expect Fed to leave monetary policy unchanged
By Staff Writer Malina Poshtova Zang
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - U.S. stock markets marched higher at midday Tuesday as confidence built on Wall Street that the Federal Reserve will leave interest rates unchanged at its one-day policy meeting due to end in a few hours.
News of the largest merger in corporate history, the expected deal between MCI WorldCom and Sprint, added to the bullish sentiment in the market.
Shortly before 11:30 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones industrial average was 73.76 points higher at 10,474.99. On the New York Stock Exchange, advances took a small lead over declines, 1,326 to 1,313, on trading volume of 338 million shares.
The Nasdaq composite index rose 32.17 points, or 1.1 percent, to 2,828.14 and the S&P 500 index was up 8.96 to 1,313.56.
The bond market was quiet ahead of the Fed meeting, whose decision is expected to be announced sometime after 2 p.m. ET. The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond traded 1/32 of a point lower in price for a yield of 6.09 percent, unchanged from Monday.
The dollar strengthened against the yen but remained range-bound against the euro.
Record merger lifts telecoms
In the stock market, investors continued to find bullish signs in much expected news that the No. 3 U.S. long distance carrier, Sprint (FON), agreed to be bought by its rival, No. 2 MCI WorldCom (WCOM), for $129 billion in stock, debt and preferred shares, making it the largest corporate merger of all time.
Shares of Sprint, which already had gained ground in anticipation of the deal, eased 1/16 to trade at 60-13/16. MCI WorldCom's stock fell 2-5/8 to 69.
The deal also sparked renewed talk of more consolidation in the telecom industry as the new company, to be known as WorldCom, will control about a third of the long-distance market in the United States and will present a powerful challenge to market leader AT&T (T).
Shares of AT&T, a Dow component, gained 1-1/8 to 44-7/8. And the stock of BellSouth (BLS), which Monday added to the excitement with its own uninvited bid for Sprint, rose 1/16 to 42-1/2.
Elsewhere in the market, investors focused on the latest news related to the third-quarter earnings reporting season, as well as an announcement by American Express (AXP) that it is about to enter the online financial advice and brokerage business by launching a special online research and brokerage arm later in the fall. Shares of the company, a member of the Dow 30, rallied 5-5/16 to 142-7/8 on the news.
Other financial stocks also gained ground in anticipation of a steady interest-rate environment over the near term. Citigroup (C) rose 1-1/8 to 45-13/16 and J.P. Morgan (JPM) was up 15/16 to 117-1/4.
In the technology sector, shares of Micron Technology (MU) climbed 2-5/8 to 79 after the chip maker reported a fiscal fourth-quarter loss late Monday that was much smaller than Wall Street had expected.
But the stock of oil exploration firm Halliburton (HAL) tumbled 4-7/8, or more than 12 percent, to 34-7/8 after the company issued what amounted to a third-quarter profit warning and said it will sell to Ingersoll-Rand (IR) its stakes in two joint ventures that accounted for its poor results. 
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