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Wall St. mulls OPEC, tech
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June 21, 2000: 7:35 a.m. ET
Investors watch producers' meeting, consider Intel, Oracle, Microsoft news
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Oil and technology will capture Wall Street's attention Wednesday, as OPEC ministers met amid reports they will not raise production as much as the United States hoped and earnings news from some leading tech companies raised concerns.
Early indications suggest U.S. stocks will open lower.
Investors will also be reacting to a court decision late Tuesday afternoon to stay business restrictions on Microsoft, and to reports Wednesday that regulators may be getting ready to block the proposed purchase of Sprint by Worldcom.
 While a decision from OPEC ministers may not come until late Wednesday, but traders will be looking for signs about the direction the ministers will take concerning oil production. There were reports that they were leaning towards only a 500,000-barrel-a-day increase in production, the lower end of what is being considered and only a token move in the eyes of some traders. But ministers from Saudi Arabia and Algeria said before the meeting that they were looking for prices to drop near $25 a barrel, which would require much larger production increases.
"They would have to raise production by more than a million barrels a day to get it down to $25," Peter Beutel, oil analyst for Cameron Hanover, told CNNfn's Ahead of the Curve. "Right now the market is looking for something between a half a million and a million, so we really have to get over that upper end of the range in order for it to be bearish enough to push us back to $25." (383K WAV) (383K AIFF)
Beutel said it is in the oil producers' interest to bring prices down from current levels because the high prices could bring on a recession, which would hurt demand and eventually send prices much lower.
Traders sent oil prices lower Wednesday. The price of a barrel of Brent crude for September delivery fell 61 cents to $27.88.
The Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 47.50 points to 3,960 in early trading. The futures were 36.37 points below fair value, a benchmark set daily by traders based on future contracts and their underlying stocks, meaning traders expected a lower open for the Nasdaq market.
S&P futures, the most widely watched futures contract, lost 3.60 points to 1,495.40 on the Globex trading system, and they were 0.24 point below fair value, suggesting a slightly lower open for that index.
The S&P futures are also watched as an indicator of the Dow Jones industrial average, with one point of difference between the futures index and fair value equal to about eight points on the indicator. So the S&P futures suggested the Dow would open down about 2 points.
The Dow Jones industrial futures themselves were down 7 points to 10,573 in earlier trading.
 On Tuesday, U.S. stocks finished mixed. The Nasdaq composite closed above the 4,000 mark for the first time in two months as it gained 23.53 points, or 0.6 percent, to 4,013.36. But it is still about 20 percent off the high of 5,048 reached in March, and just below the 4,069 level where it began the year.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 122.68 points, or 1.2 percent, to 10,435.16, while the S&P 500 index slipped 10.05 points, or 0.7 percent, 1,475.95.
Major markets gained in Asia Wednesday, led by technology and telecom issues. Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei index gained 302.53 points, or 1.7 percent, to 17,210.08, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index reversed recent declines to climb 151.40 points, or 0.9 percent, to 16,238.14.
But major markets slipped morning trading in Europe Wednesday, as declines in telecom issues weighed down indexes. London's benchmark FTSE 100 lost 74.30 points, or 1.1 percent, to 6,452.6, while the Paris CAC 40 fell 63.23 points, or 1.0 percent, to 6491.69. Frankfurt's Xetra Dax index dropped 111.65 point, or 1.5 percent, to 7,115.62.
In the Treasury market, the 30-year bond fell 7/32 of a point in price in early trading. That sent its yield, which moves in the opposite direction, to 5.92 percent from 5.89 percent late Tuesday. Meanwhile the 10-year note, which some observers now consider their Treasury benchmark, fell 8/32 of a point, which raised its yield to 6.06 percent from 6.01 percent.
In the currency market, the dollar strengthened versus the euro and yen in early trading. The euro fell to 94.75 cents from 95.69 cents in late trading Tuesday. Meanwhile, the dollar edged up to 105.30 yen from 105.44.
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 In company news, Intel (INTC: Research, Estimates) said late Tuesday that the circuit board recall it announced early last month will cost it $200 million in the second quarter, less than many analysts were expecting, and that income from investments will be better than expected.
Shares of the Dow component fell 1-3/16 to 137-1/8 in after-hours trading on MarketXT Tuesday, after a gain of 1-13/16 in regular hours trading. Shares were also off in trading in Frankfurt early Wednesday, slipping 2 euros to 144 euros.
Software company Oracle (ORCL: Research, Estimates) reported better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings after the market closed Tuesday, but reports about weaker than expected sales sent its shares down in after-hours trading.
The database and business software provider earned $926 million before one-time items, or 31 cents a share, topping the 25 cents a share forecast of analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call. The company earned $527 million, or 18 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.
But the database programs rose a smaller than expected 12 percent, disappointing investors who had driven share prices up in recent weeks. That sent shares down 4-1/32, or almost 5 percent, to 82 in active after-hours trading, with almost 3 million shares changing hands. The stock rose 31/32 to 86-1/32 in regular trading before earnings were announced.
Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson unexpectedly agreed to hold off on a series of business restrictions that he had previously ordered against Microsoft (MSFT: Research, Estimates) while its antitrust case is appealed.
Those restrictions included requiring disclosure of technical information about its operating systems to independent hardware and software companies that Microsoft has argued would be "devastating."
But the news wasn't all good for Microsoft, as the judge also sent the appeal directly to the Supreme Court, rather than to the Court of Appeals, which the company wanted to hear the case.
The decision was announced just before the market close Tuesday. Shares gained 1-1/4 at 74-15/16, although it slipped 11/16 in after-hours trading. In Frankfurt Wednesday, shares gained 0.5 euro to 78.50 euros in relatively heavy trading for a U.S. issue.
Regulators in Europe and the United States both appear poised to block the purchase of Sprint (FON: Research, Estimates) by Worldcom (WCOM: Research, Estimates), the largest telecom deal in history, due to antitrust concerns, according to reports Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. If U.S. regulators turn thumbs down on the $115 billion deal, it would be the largest combination ever blocked.
Shares of Worldcom fell 5/16 to 41-11/16 in trading Tuesday, while Sprint shares gained 1/8 to 60-1/8. 
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