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Heavy selling on Wall St.
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October 21, 1999: 3:10 p.m. ET
IBM profit warning pours cold water on tech sector, drives broader market down
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Sellers continued to pound U.S. stock markets late Thursday, driving share prices sharply lower amid disappointment after IBM issued a profit warning late Wednesday, as well as some lingering concern about interest rates.
Shortly before 3 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 196.93 points, or 1.9 percent, to 10,195.43. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers jumped ahead of gainers 2,008 to 991 on trading volume of 761 million shares.
The Nasdaq composite index fell 34.45 points, or 1.2 percent, to 2,753.68, and the S&P 500 index lost 22.54, or 1.8 percent, to 1,266.89. (Click here for a look at today's CNNfn hot stocks.)
"The market is still very concerned with interest rates, and the IBM announcement gave the market a perfect excuse to refocus on higher interest rates," said Peter Cardillo, director of research at Westfalia Investments.
Bonds retreated under the weight of fresh supply of corporate debt after Ford Motor Co. priced a $5 billion issue. The market had risen earlier when the European Central Bank opted to leave interest rates unchanged. The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond fell 7/32 of a point in price, its yield rising to 6.35 percent from 6.33 percent late Wednesday.
The dollar fell against both the yen and the euro.
IBM results rattle techs, broad market
In the stock market, investors sold blue-chip technology stocks they had bought in the previous day's rally. The sell-off came after sector leader IBM (IBM) reported third-quarter earnings that met expectations, but also said Y2K problems hurt revenue in the quarter -- and issued profit warnings for the fourth quarter of 1999 and the first quarter of 2000.
Shares of Big Blue plunged 16-13/16, or nearly 16 percent, to 90-3/16, driving the Dow industrials sharply lower. Several brokerages downgraded the stock. Among them, Lehman Brothers lowered its rating of the company to "outperform" from "buy," and Merrill Lynch downgraded IBM to "near-term neutral" from "near-term buy."
IBM's woes spread throughout the technology sector. Hewlett Packard (HWP), the other Dow technology component, lost 2-15/16 to 73-5/8.
On the Nasdaq, Microsoft (MSFT), whose own strong earnings helped fuel Wall Street's rally Wednesday, saw its shares lose 1 to 91-1/4. Intel (INTC) fell 1-1/16 to 68-7/8, Cisco Systems (CSCO) dropped 2-1/16 to 67-7/8, and Dell Computer (DELL), which two days earlier issued a profit warning of its own, lost 1-1/4 to 38-3/4.
On the positive side, however, shares of made-to-order computer firm Gateway (GTW) rallied 8-5/16, or almost 16 percent, to 60-5/16 after the company's third-quarter earnings of 1 cent a share came in ahead of Wall Street predictions. A strategic alliance with America Online (AOL) also helped propel Gateway's stock higher. The two companies are to co-brand and distribute each other's products, and share profits from the arrangement.
AOL's shares rose 4-1/2 to 122-1/2 after the online service provider late Wednesday reported stronger-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results.
Non-tech earnings mostly strong
Earnings from several of the Dow's non-technology components came in largely ahead of expectations, lifting the underlying stocks and helping cushion the blue-chip index's fall.
Among the positive surprises, pharmaceutical powerhouse Merck (MRK) reported a 13 percent jump in net profit in the third quarter, matching analysts' expectations. The stock gained 2-7/16 to 78-1/8.
Meanwhile, soft-drink titan Coca Cola (KO) registered an 11-percent decline in third-quarter profit but still matched lowered market forecasts; the stock jumped 1 to 53-3/4.
Finally, Dow retail component Sears Roebuck (S) saw its stock retreat 1-1/8 to 27-7/8 after reporting third-quarter profit that beat analysts' estimates, even though it was 10 percent lower than in the same quarter a year earlier. 
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