MARKET PREVIEW: Nasdaq eyes 4,000
Techs may continue to drive the Nasdaq closer to 4,000 Wednesday, as they continue to celebrate the Fed's decision to leave interest rates unchanged, and remain "neutral" on the possibility of raising them next year. Asia was mixed, Europe moved up, and the Dow is set to open flat to slightly lower.
U.S.
The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee's last meeting of 1999 signaled good things ahead for 2000, after officials elected to remain "neutral" rather than shifting their stance on interest rates to a "tightening bias."
The Nasdaq composite rallied a record 127.28 points, or 3.36 percent, to 3,911.15 on the news Tuesday. The index posted its 56th record close for the year, surpassing its previous record point gain of 108.87 set on September 3.
Despite the cheer, 3Com (Nasdaq: COMS) may not be looking up after it warned fiscal third-quarter revenues will not be as strong as they were in the second quarter, despite beating estimates.
Expect these stocks to be among Wednesday's most actively traded issues: Consolidated Graphics, Healtheon, Liberate Technologies, 3Com and Xerox.
Technology stocks made decent gains Monday in narrow trading as the Nasdaq composite moved up 38 points to a record close of 3,658.41. The Dow Jones industrial average shed 32 points to close at 11,192.59.
At the Bell
The Dow Jones industrial average may open about 2 points lower. The Standard & Poor's 500 index for June futures contracts was down 0.3 points to 1454 at 7:31 a.m. EST in 24-hour electronic trading.
The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index was up 25 to 562.87.
Asia
Trading in Asia was mixed. The Nikkei 225 rose 2.11 percent to 18,462, Singapore's Strait Times index gained 0.89 percent to 2,384 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.35 percent to 16,192.
Europe
European markets were moving up. London's FTSE 100 rose 0.26 percent to 6,725. The CAC 40 in Paris gained 1.69 percent to 5,623 and the Xetra DAX in Frankfurt was up 1.22 percent to 6,497 at 7:10 a.m. EST.
Reuters contributed to this report.