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Dow mired below 10,000
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March 16, 1999: 1:44 p.m. ET
After conquering the milestone, blue chip stocks turn around and head lower
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Having tried the ground above 10,000 briefly Tuesday, the Dow quickly retreated and remained under pressure in the early afternoon.
Earlier in the session, after four days of cautious advances and quick retreats, the Dow Jones industrial average made history, crossing 10,000 for the first time in its 114-year history.
But the euphoria was short-lived, and minutes after the index crossed the five-figure threshold, sellers came in, wiping out the Dow's gains and sending the index below Monday's closing level.
The market later recovered and shortly after 1:30 p.m. ET the Dow Jones industrial average was 22.75 points lower at 9,936.02, retreating after climbing as high as 10,001.78.
"I think that you are going to be flirting with that number back and forth. I think good traders, on the excitement, probably took some profits and I think that we will vacillate and move a lot higher," said Ralph Acampora, chief technical analyst at Prudential Securities.
On the New York Stock Exchange, declines outnumbered advances 1,654 to 1,187 on trading volume of 454 million shares.
The Nasdaq Composite rose 2.68 to 2,434.12. The S&P 500 eased 2.25 to 1,305.01. (Click here for a look at today's CNNfn market movers)
Bonds were higher, helped a bit by a small recovery in the dollar and keeping their gains after the release of February industrial production data that came above estimates. The bellwether 30-year Treasury bond rose 21/32 of a point in price, for a yield of 5.47 percent.
The dollar recovered small ground against the yen, but remained stuck in a narrow trading range. The dollar also inched up against the euro.
Caution near the peak
As had been the case over the past three trading session, the proximity to 10,000 seemed to cause caution among investors.
Still, an announcement by chemical giant and Dow component Union Carbide (UK) that first-quarter earnings will come in at the high end of forecasts helped lift that stock 1-1/2 to 45 and push the Dow toward the five-figure landmark.
The Dow also got some help from Merck (MRK), which rose 1-3/16 to 85-7/16 on news the Food and Drug Administration has approved broader use of the company's drug Mevacor, a cholesterol lowering treatment.
Major technology components, which had been a drag on the Dow in early trading, put in a mixed performance. IBM (IBM) eased 5/16 to 181-11/16, and Hewlett Packard (HWP) rose 1 to 72-9/16.
The Dow's financial components, however, weighed on the overall index, with American Express (AXP) slipping 2-9/16 to 123-3/16, Citigroup (C) shedding 1-7/8 to 64-1/16 and J.P. Morgan (JPM) losing 3/16 to 125-3/16.
The rest of the market appeared satisfied to remain within a limited trading range, with few stocks making large strides in either direction.
Webs on a roll
Among the few outstanding issues, shares of Go2Net (GNET) soared 13-9/16 to 126-15/16, a gain of almost 12 percent coming on top of strong gains from Monday, when Microsoft co-founder and billionaire investor Paul Allen said he would buy a $300 million stake in the company, which operates a network of community Web sites and the MetaCrawler search engine.
Other Web-related issues shared the excitement, with Cyberian Outpost (COOL) surging 4-15/16, or more than 26 percent, to 23-7/16 and CyberCash (CYCH) rallying 2-9/16, or nearly 18 percent, to 16-13/16.
More established Internet players showed a cooler attitude, with America Online (AOL) rising 2-9/16 to 104-9/16, Amazon.com (AMZN) slipping 4-13/16 to 134-1/8 and Yahoo! (YHOO) easing 3-1/2 to 175-15/16.
Tech blue chips take the lead
Despite the Dow's uncertain performance, the Nasdaq managed to hold to small gains through most of the morning, largely due to strength in the blue chip tech sector.
Shares of Microsoft (MSFT) rose 1-11/16 to 167-9/16, Intel (INTC) advanced 2-1/2 to 120-3/8, Cisco Systems (CSCO) gained 9/16 to 105-9/16 and Dell Computer (DELL) inched up 1/16 to 43-13/16. 
-- by staff writer Malina Poshtova Zang
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