Investors had a full plate of news last week, as geopolitical, economic
and corporate reports vied for attention. Mounting evidence that al Qaeda was
behind the Madrid bombings and the surprise win by the Socialist party in
Spain's general election led to some market jitters. Meanwhile, market
watchers continue to wait and see if Pakistani forces capture No. 2 al Qaeda
leader Ayman Al-Zawahri. Elsewhere, Taiwan's president and vice president
survived an assassination attempt on the eve of a presidential election. On
the economic front, the Federal Reserve repeated its pledge to remain
"patient" in raising interest rates. Peter Dunay, chief market and options
strategist for Wall Street Access, said in a Reuters News piece, "In the near
term, we don't have to worry about rates going up, and they have several
months of jobs data before they see a risk of raising rates." Still, there
were plenty of corporate reports to keep investors interested in tech stocks.
Software maker Adobe Systems was a true winner, after the firm posted better-
than-expected first-quarter results and raised its outlook for the year.
However, software titan Microsoft was served a blow when it and the European
Commission failed to reach a deal regarding antitrust issues, leaving the firm
facing hefty fines and rulings that could significantly impact the way it
sells its software. Communications equipment stocks were also active. Nortel
slumped, after the firm placed its chief financial officer and controller on
paid leaves of absence pending an independent review. Elsewhere in that group,
Cisco encouraged the market, after its chief executive noted that strength in
business confidence is "pretty uniform" worldwide. This week, investors will
remain sensitive to further geopolitical events, but shall also keep an eye
out for any shocking preannouncements ahead of the impending earnings season.
High-Tech Monday Update is provided courtesy of Thomson Financial. This
information is believed to be true and accurate; we take no responsibility for
inaccurate information and reserve the right to update our reports. For more
information, please visit our web site at http://www.thomson.com/financial.
SOURCE Thomson Financial Corporate Group
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