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Wild ride on Wall St.
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December 8, 2000: 5:34 p.m. ET
A Friday stocks rally could fade after court orders Florida recounts
By Staff Writer Jake Ulick
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Contrasting legal decisions in the presidential election impasse whipsawed investors Friday with U.S. stocks closing sharply higher in regular trading, only to fall in after-hours activity.
A pair of Florida court rulings favoring George W. Bush pushed stock prices higher. But a late-afternoon decision by the Florida Supreme Court gave new life to Vice President Al Gore's challenge, sending stock index futures sharply lower. Shortly after 4:30 p.m., S&P 500 index futures were trading some 30 points below fair value, implying a sharply lower opening on Monday if things remain as they are today. Stocks seen benefiting from a Bush presidency also fell after-hours.
Click here for details on the rulings.
The decision, announced minutes after the market closed, overshadowed a rally that handed Wall Street its first weekly win in a month.
After falling steadily since Labor Day, the Nasdaq composite index hasn't hit an annual low in six trading sessions, sparking predictions that the index, down 29 percent in 2000, has finally bottomed.
 A blitz of positive, market moving news helped. The government's job report for November showed surprising weakness, upping chances that the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates next year.
"I think they may ease as soon as late January," Bruce Steinberg, economist at Merrill Lynch, told CNNfn's market coverage.
The session's gains come in the face of a sales warning from Intel. Analysts said that a market that no longer falls on bad news suggests the worst could be over for hard-hit tech stocks, which have fallen steadily since Labor Day.
The Nasdaq composite index jumped 164.77 or nearly 6 percent, to 2,917.43. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 95.55 to 10,712.91, and the S&P 500 climbed 26.34 to 1,369.89.
All three index gained on the week for the first time since early November. The Nasdaq rose 10.2 percent, the Dow climbed 3.2 percent and the S&P 500 advanced 4 percent.
 More stocks rose than fell Friday. Advancing issues on the New York Stock Exchange topped declining ones 2,082 to 820 as 1.2 billion shares traded. Nasdaq winners topped losers 2,811 to 1,156 as more than 2.2 billion shares changed hands.
In other markets, Treasury securities edged lower following three days of gains. The dollar advanced against the yen but was little changed versus the euro.
The impasse continues
The month-old presidential impasse appeared headed toward a conclusion Friday afternoon after Florida two judges refused to throw out absentee ballot counts in two counties that favored Bush. However, a bombshell 4-3 decision by the Florida Supreme Court ordering immediate hand counts of 9,000 disputed presidential ballots in Miami-Dade County dashed those hopes.
Until the decision, Bush, who leads Gore in the contest for Florida's crucial electoral votes, was seen as closer to victory and was one of the reasons the market rallied.
But S&P 500 futures fell 30.97 points below fair value to 1,358 in late trading Friday, a sign that stocks might fall Monday.
 For months, analysts have debated about the impact of the White House uncertainty. Some call it a legitimate selling catalyst; others insist it's an excuse. But this much is clear -- the Nasdaq is down 16 percent since Election Day.
Linda Jay, floor trader at RPM Specialists, talked about the significance of the impasse on CNNfn's Market Call. (314K WAV) (314K AIFF)
Jobs report signals slowdown
The November jobs report signaled the economy may be losing steam. Unemployment ticked up to 4 percent from 3.9 percent in October, the government said. While wages rose, job creation slowed to a level that surprised analysts.
Employers added only 94,000 jobs in November, the Labor Department said, far fewer than the 150,000 expected.
"If the tone of the December report is similar to this one, the Fed could ease policy at [next month's] meeting," said Mike Moran, economist at Daiwa Securities.
After last cutting rates in November 1998, the Fed raised rates a half-dozen times since the summer of 1999 to keep the surging economy from generating the kind of out-of-control inflation that might derail the record, 10-year expansion.
In a nod to this effort, Fed Chief Alan Greenspan Tuesday acknowledged the economy is slowing. The remarks, economists say, open the door to a rate cut next year.
They also sparked a rally Tuesday that sent the Nasdaq up 10.5 percent, a record.
The week's gains come against the backdrop of more revenue warnings.
Intel (INTC: Research, Estimates) late Thursday became the latest company to say revenue will miss forecasts. Blaming slowing demand for personal computers, the chipmaker forecasts flat revenue for the current quarter. That counters expectations for a 4 percent to 8 percent gain.
Still, Intel rose $1.56 to $33.88. The surprise gains, analysts said, mean investors may already have priced in bad news when they sent the shares to a 52-week low Tuesday.
In recent weeks, Apple Computer, Gateway and Motorola have readied investors for financial disappointments.
But all those stocks rose Friday, a sign the market may have bottomed after the Nasdaq fell 49 percent from its March 10 high last week.
"That's a phenomenal psychological change," Barry Hyman, chief market strategist at Weatherly Securities, told CNNfn's Talking Stocks. "It indicates things are priced in."
Among Nasdaq's gainers, Cisco Systems (CSCO: Research, Estimates) rose $2.44 to $52.38 and Oracle (ORCL: Research, Estimates) shot up $1.75 to $30.06. On the Dow, J.P. Morgan (JPM: Research, Estimates) rose $2.25 to $147.25 and IBM (IBM: Research, Estimates) advanced $1.63 to $97. 
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