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Blue chips cheer up
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December 8, 1998: 11:39 a.m. ET
Solid advances in technology sector help broader market move higher
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Strong technology stocks once again helped the broader market reverse direction and head into positive territory at midday Tuesday, as investors focused on several deals and a bright outlook for the high-tech sector.
Shortly before 11:30 a.m. ET the Dow Jones industrial average was 10.29 points higher at 9,080.76. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers led gainers 1,391 to 1,293 on trading volume of 263 million shares.
The Nasdaq Composite rose 13.29 to 2,053.93 and the S&P 500 index edged up 2.89 to 1,190.56.
The bond market traded near unchanged levels, once again moving in the opposite direction of stocks. The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond erased its early gains and traded 1/32 of a point in price for a yield of 5.03 percent.
The dollar weakened slightly against the German mark and the Japanese yen with expectations for a British interest rate cut later in the week seen as the major factor in currency trading.
Deals of the day
In stocks, action concentrated among the day's newsmakers, which included stocks involved in several deals.
In a pure Dow transaction, shares of AT&T (T) rallied 3-3/8 to 68-1/8 after the company agreed to buy the networking business of fellow blue chip IBM (IBM) for $5 billion in cash. Shares of IBM rose 2-9/16 to 169-3/4.
The stock of Union Carbide (UK), however, weighed on the Dow, losing 1-13/16 to 42-3/16 after the company issued a fourth-quarter profit warning.
In the day's other deal, American depositary receipts of Esprit Telecom Group (ESPRY) surged 8-1/16, or more than 26 percent, to 38-5/16 on news Global TeleSystems (GTSG) is buying the British company for $675 million in a deal that will create a telecommunications giant with more than $4 billion in market capitalization. Global's stock gained 3-1/2 to 45-1/4.
Elsewhere among the early movers, shares of computer chip powerhouse Intel (INTC) surged 3-7/16 to 122-3/8 after Morgan Stanley Dean Witter raised its price target for the stock to $150 from $130. Many other tech blue chips followed suit, with Dell (DELL) rising 3/4 to 68-3/8 and Sun Microsystems (SUNW) advancing 21/32 to 78-15/32.
Microsoft (MSFT) inched up 1/8 to 133-11/16 after succumbing to early profit taking after a sharp run-up Monday, following news that South Carolina had dropped out of a broad antitrust lawsuit brought against the software giant by the Justice Department and 20 states. 
-- by staff writer Malina Poshtova Zang
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