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CNNfn market movers
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August 21, 1998: 11:22 a.m. ET
3-D imagers Autodesk, Discreet Logic nose-dive; Peerless leads tech decliners
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Shares of a cutting-edge maker of computer design software used to create 3-D images tumbled sharply Friday, dragging the stock of its takeover target along with it into the Nasdaq's fourth dimension.
An agreement by Autodesk (ADSK) to buy Discreet Logic (DSLGF), a developer of computer-aided visual effects for film and video, for about $530 million in stock sent shares of both companies into a nose dive.
Autodesk stock plummeted 5-3/8 to 27-1/4, a nearly 17 percent decline, after Goldman Sachs downgraded the company's rating Friday from its U.S. Recommended List to "market outperformer." Goldman Sachs cited uncertainty arising from an acquisition and other charges. Discreet Logic stock lost 2-3/4 to 13-1/4, or 17.19 percent.
Another software-based image maker, Peerless Systems (PRLS), got crushed in early Nasdaq trade Friday, hurt by a profit warning and a decision by Prudential Securities to lower the firm's rating to "hold" from "buy."
Peerless shares were truly unrivaled among decliners, sliding 14-1/16 to 6-9/16, or 68.18 percent, on the Instinet trading system after the company said Thursday its quarterly profit will dip below its prior-year results for the rest of fiscal 1999 and into fiscal 2000.
Circus Circus (CIR) stock did a nice trampoline act on the Street Friday, bouncing 3/8 to 13-1/4 -- and staying aloft. The Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company said Thursday its fiscal second-quarter net income rose to $25.3 million, or 27 cents a share, from $25 million, or 26 cents a diluted share, a year earlier.
The company's properties generated $114.7 million in operating cash flow, up from $105.6 million in the year-ago period.
Bio-tech firm Monsanto Co. (MTC) saw its stock decline ½ to 56-1/2, after the life sciences company said it was the first to genetically engineer corn to resist rootwom, an insect that causes $1 billion in damage annually to the maize crop.
AMP Inc. (AMP) declined 5/16 to 38-11/16 after the electronics firm rejected a hostile takeover bid by AlliedSignal (ALD), calling the offer inadequate. AMP also reshuffled its management. Allied stock lost a point to 38-1/8. 
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