MARKET CLOSE: Investors pause despite bullish outlook

Traders started the week on a cautious note Monday, opting for a wait-and-see approach even though several prominent analysts issued rather bullish research notes. For the day, the Dow shed 81 points to 10,648.51 while the Nasdaq extended its record high by a point to 2,967.64.

Joseph Battipaglia, chairman of investment policy at Gruntal & Co., said his the firm raised its year-end target for the Nasdaq 3,100 from 2,900.

"I believe that the market will continue to rally through the end of the year on strong earnings, absence of Federal Reserve action, and the passing of any lingering Y2K concerns," Battipaglia said in a note

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Chief U.S. Equity Strategist Byron Wien said he raised the stocks portion of his U.S. equities portfolio by 5 percentage points to 85 percent, and cut the cash part by 5 points to 15 percent.

Internet stocks enjoyed the best run among technology sectors as leaders such as America Online Inc. (AOL) and Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) charged up 4 11/16 and 1 5/8 a share, respectively.

eBay Inc. (EBAY) closed up 1 7/8 to 137 after it said it was hooking up with TradeOut.com, a privately held online marketplace for business surplus. The company will get $22 million in third-round financing from eBay and others.

Excite@Home Corp. (ATHM) rose 2 3/4 to 40 1/8 while Lycos Inc. (LCOS) and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) fell 7/8 and 1 1/2 a share, respectively. Infoseek Corp. (SEEK) moved up 3 1/16 to 34 3/4.

Wit Capital Group (WITC) rallied up 4 13/16 to 22 3/8 after the company said it will buy SoundView Technology Group for about $320 million in stock. The move bolsters its Internet/technology investment banking.

Among leading network-equipment stocks, Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) fell 1 1/8 to 72 7/8; 3Com Corp. (COMS) dropped 3/8 to 28 5/8 and Lucent Technologies Inc. (LU) closed up 11/16 to 64 7/8.

Intel Corp. (INTC) lost 1 7/16 to 76. International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) chopped off 1 1/2 to 96 3/4 and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) closed up 1/2 to 20 5/16.

Motorola Inc. (MOT) tacked on 4 13/16 to 102 1/8 after unveiling a new chip that allows cellular phones to operate from any wireless network in the world.

Adaptec, Inc. (ADPT) picked up 1 13/16 to 46 13/16 after announcing it will buy Distributed Processing Technology for $235 million in cash and stock.

Oracle Corp. (ORCL) surged up 3 5/8 to a 52-week high of 51 3/16 amid optimism that orders going into the new year are strong and that electronic-commerce consulting revenues will increase. Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW) fell 1 7/8 to 103 15/16 and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) slid 3/16 to 92 3/8.

AT&T Corp. (T) moved up 9/16 to 47 5/16 after announcing it would form a publicly traded Latin American unit with operations in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru.

Among the box makers, Dell Computer Corp. (DELL) gained 5/8 to 40 3/4; Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) trimmed 2 1/2 to 77 5/8; Gateway Inc. (GTW) lost 1 5/16 to 64 3/4 and Compaq Computer Corp. (CPQ) closed up 5/16 to 19 7/16.