Coyote's Duchess
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http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=sto.../20020828/bs_nm/markets_stocks_us_europe_dc_3
Weak Start Seen for Wall Street
Wed Aug 28, 6:42 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. shares are expected to drift at Wednesday's opening, with techs seen struggling to get back on an even keel after Tuesday's battering, hurt by news of more job cuts and a lowered revenue forecast from Nortel.
Nortel shares traded at $1.14 in Europe against a New York close of $1.23, reacting to news the telecoms equipment maker would cut another 7,000 jobs and its estimate that revenues would be about 10 percent lower on weaker-than-expected demand. It had previously said it expected third-quarter revenues from operations to pretty much match those in the second quarter.
Stock index futures showed the September Dow Jones industrial average contract down 20 points to 8,815 points and the same Nasdaq 100 contract off six points to 975.0.
Traders said the lower futures pointed to fresh weakness after the Dow's 95-point fall and the 3.2 percent Nasdaq Composite slide on Tuesday, following a drop in U.S. consumer confidence and a dull outlook from Intel Corp.
"Consumer confidence was weak and the comments from Intel yesterday were not great, so really in terms of the techs and telecoms things are bad and in some ways getting worse. They've all rallied off their lows so there's probably more room for them to come back," said a trader.
Some market watchers believed Wall Street's reaction to the consumer confidence data might have gone too far, adding the usual proviso of reading too much into one month's figures.
"I think those fears about consumer confidence are a little bit overdone. We're not looking for strong consumer demand in the U.S., but we're certainly not looking for a collapse," said Commerzbank economist Tamiko Bayliss.
Observers said that Tuesday's strong July durable goods report did support the view that the U.S. economy would stabilize, but worries about a war between the United States and Iraq were coming to the forefront, especially after Monday's hawkish remarks from Vice President Dick Cheney.
"More comments like those from Dick Cheney would certainly be a risk factor and certainly not help the markets stabilize at all," said Bayliss.
"The market's had a good run in August and it's returning to look at some of the bad news. The war scenario is overhanging the market and that will continue," said the trader.
Techs stayed on the defensive, with telecoms equipment maker Lucent Technologies quoted at $1.83 after a close of $1.89, although Hewlett Packard traded at $14.45 against its $14.21 New York finish, pleasing investors by saying its consolidation plans are on track.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=sto.../20020828/bs_nm/markets_stocks_us_europe_dc_3
Weak Start Seen for Wall Street
Wed Aug 28, 6:42 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. shares are expected to drift at Wednesday's opening, with techs seen struggling to get back on an even keel after Tuesday's battering, hurt by news of more job cuts and a lowered revenue forecast from Nortel.
Nortel shares traded at $1.14 in Europe against a New York close of $1.23, reacting to news the telecoms equipment maker would cut another 7,000 jobs and its estimate that revenues would be about 10 percent lower on weaker-than-expected demand. It had previously said it expected third-quarter revenues from operations to pretty much match those in the second quarter.
Stock index futures showed the September Dow Jones industrial average contract down 20 points to 8,815 points and the same Nasdaq 100 contract off six points to 975.0.
Traders said the lower futures pointed to fresh weakness after the Dow's 95-point fall and the 3.2 percent Nasdaq Composite slide on Tuesday, following a drop in U.S. consumer confidence and a dull outlook from Intel Corp.
"Consumer confidence was weak and the comments from Intel yesterday were not great, so really in terms of the techs and telecoms things are bad and in some ways getting worse. They've all rallied off their lows so there's probably more room for them to come back," said a trader.
Some market watchers believed Wall Street's reaction to the consumer confidence data might have gone too far, adding the usual proviso of reading too much into one month's figures.
"I think those fears about consumer confidence are a little bit overdone. We're not looking for strong consumer demand in the U.S., but we're certainly not looking for a collapse," said Commerzbank economist Tamiko Bayliss.
Observers said that Tuesday's strong July durable goods report did support the view that the U.S. economy would stabilize, but worries about a war between the United States and Iraq were coming to the forefront, especially after Monday's hawkish remarks from Vice President Dick Cheney.
"More comments like those from Dick Cheney would certainly be a risk factor and certainly not help the markets stabilize at all," said Bayliss.
"The market's had a good run in August and it's returning to look at some of the bad news. The war scenario is overhanging the market and that will continue," said the trader.
Techs stayed on the defensive, with telecoms equipment maker Lucent Technologies quoted at $1.83 after a close of $1.89, although Hewlett Packard traded at $14.45 against its $14.21 New York finish, pleasing investors by saying its consolidation plans are on track.