MIDDAY MARKETS: Techs move on mergers, Fed anticipation

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

2 min read

Investors jumped the inflation gun at midday Monday, and bought back techs ahead of the Federal Reserve's big move on interest rates Tuesday. The Nasdaq gained 44.70 to 2693.03 and the Dow Jones industrial average put on 121.26 to 11221.87.

Inter@ctive Week's @Net Index rose 7.88 to 294.83.

Regardless of the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates, some buy-back should be expected after such a long season of selling. Anxious to get ahead of bargain hunters sure to snap up tech discounts after tomorrow's meeting, investors went on a restrained shopping spree, snapping up nets, as well as those moving on acquisition news.

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) fell 7/8 to 73 3/8 after it announced plans for a stock-for-stock merger worth about $540 million with Forte Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: FRTE). Forte was up 3 13/16 to 20 13/16.

Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) gained 5/16 to 37 5/16 and AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T) picked up 1/16 to 46 15/16.

Stamps.com (Nasdaq: STMP), up 5 to 35 5/8, rose 18 percent after it said it has a deal with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), up 1 7/8 to 85 1/4 to offer its Internet postage service through the Microsoft Office Update Web site.

Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) added 2 1/16 to 82, and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) grew 11/16 to 18 15/16.

PSINet Inc. (Nasdaq: PSIX), up 1 15/16 to 47 1/2, said it has agreed to buy Transaction Network Services, Inc. (NYSE: TNI), up 9 7/8 to 44 1/8, in a deal valued near $720 million.

Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) gained 6 3/4 to 151 3/4, while Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) added 6 1/4 to 119 11/16 and America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) was up 2 13/16 to 98. Other Net notables included: Lycos Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS), up 3/4 to 44 7/8, Infoseek Corp. (Nasdaq: SEEK), up 3/8 to 31 13/16, Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM), up 2 49/64 to 40 29/64, and Mindspring (Nasdaq: MSPG) up 1/2 to 30 9/16. CMGi Inc. (Nasdaq: CMGI) also rose 3 13/16 to 83 3/4.

IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) rose 1 11/16 to 123 7/16, Gateway Inc. (NYSE: GTW) fell 1/8 to 90 3/8, Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL) dropped 1/16 to 43 3/16 and Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) fell 1/8 to 24 1/4. Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) gained 1 11/16 to 60 7/8.

Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) gained 15/16 to 64 9/16,Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) added 9/16 to 64 11/16, and 3Com Corp. (Nasdaq: COMS) gained 1/2 to 24 1/16.