As expected, trading was relatively subdued last week ahead of this
Wednesday's Fed meeting and the deadline for the handover of power to Iraq. A
wave of violence hit that region last week, causing some uneasiness ahead of
the transference. "There isn't enough good news right now to really get people
involved . . . Most professionals and individuals are just holding, looking
for some clarity on the presidential election, and, perhaps more importantly,
looking for some clarity from the Fed on rate rises," said Rick Meckler,
president of LibertyView Asset Management, to Reuters News. Still, there were
two notable late-day comebacks, principally driven by tech issues. Sprint
Corp. and SBC Communications incited excitement amongst network gear makers,
such as Juniper Networks and Ciena, on word they plan to invest heavily in
technology into 2005. Referring to this development, Jack Caffrey, equity
strategist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, commented to Reuters News, "You have
some investors focusing on the idea that the tech upswing still has some legs
to it." Elsewhere, some missed merger opportunities also spurred excitement.
BEA Systems and Siebel Systems were amongst those software makers that were
potential acquisition targets for Oracle, according to court testimony from
that firm. Also, Nortel benefited from rumors it was a target for Cisco
Systems; however, both firms denied the claim, but said they are open to a
partnership. Chip firms were also active. OmniVision Technologies and ATI
Technologies both surged on their stronger quarterly profits. Micron
Technology's third-quarter earnings handily beat the mean analyst estimate,
but its revenue figure was just shy of the average Street forecast. With
little doubt, the June 30th deadline for the handover of power to Iraq and the
Federal Reserve's policy setting meeting will be the focus of this week.
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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