MARKET CLOSE: Blue chips gain ground; techs slip

Jan. 2, 2002 4:43 p.m. PT

2 min read

Technology stocks pulled back a bit Tuesday despite some fairly encouraging comments from Fed Chief Alan Greenspan. The Nasdaq composite shed 24 points to close at 3,956.38 while the Dow Jones industrial average added 81 points to close at 10,727.19.

Greenspan said on Tuesday it was still an open issue as to whether the U.S. productivity boom signals a permanent structural change in the economy.

He added that it might take a broad slowdown in the economy to give a clear indication as to how much of the productivity pickup was permanent, but that no such slow down appeared to be underway.

"Greenspan is developing an understanding about how productivity can mitigate inflationary factors," said Mike Feeney, of independent research firm Wall Street Strategies. "I don't think he said really anything negative to spook the market."

Yahoo! (YHOO) shares fell 4 25/64 to 105 39/64 ahead of its second-quarter earnings report. America Online (AOL) shed 1 11/16 to 54 1/16 while Amazon.com (AMZN) and eBay (EBAY) fell 2 and 4 1/16 a share, respectively. Lycos (LCOS) closed off 5 to 41 1/2.

DoubleClick (Nasdaq: DCLK) dropped 3 11/64 to 28 33/64.

Axcelis Technologies (Nasdaq: ACLS), a semiconductor equipment manufacturer, gained 1 15/16 to 23 15/16 in its initial public offering.

Entegris (Nasdaq: ENTG), which makes semiconductor and disk drive materials management products, inched up 3/16 to 11 3/16 in its debut.

Pinnacle Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: PCLE) fell 13 7/16 to 9 3/16.

Among widely held PC stocks, Dell (DELL) added 1 1/16 to 50 13/16; Apple (AAPL) lost 3/8 to 79 1/16; Gateway rose 1 3/8 to 67 3/8 and Compaq (CPQ) closed off 7/16 to 25 9/16.

Shares of VoiceStream Wireless Corp. (Nasdaq: VSTR) rose 14 1/16 to 139 after reports surfaced about a possible buyout

Microsoft (MSFT) fell 3/8 to 79 1/16 while Oracle (ORCL) and Sun Microsystems (SUNW) dropped 1 3/4 and 1 9/16 a share, respectively.

Intel (INTC) picked up 15/16 to 138 3/4. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) shed 3 to 82 and IBM (IBM) closed off 1 3/8 to 101 15/16.

Among leading network-equipment vendors, Cisco Systems (CSCO) lost 1 1/16 to 62 1/16; Nortel Networks (NT) inched up 1/8 to 71 1/8; 3Com (COMS) gained 7/8 to 56 3/4 and Lucent Technologies (LU) closed off 1 3/16 to 55 1/16.