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Wall St. on the fence
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November 15, 2001: 5:35 p.m. ET
Afghanistan developments, tech concerns, make for indecisive session.
By Staff Writer Alexandra Twin
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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - U.S. stocks seesawed Thursday, closing little changed as investors coped with the competing influences of encouraging reports out of Afghanistan and lower oil prices versus weakness in selected technology issues.
The Nasdaq closed down 2.62 to 1,900.57, after being on both sides of the breakeven point throughout the day. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 48.78 to 9,872.39, hitting its third straight day of gains, while the Standard & Poor's index rose 1.03 to 1,142.24.
No. 1 chip equipment maker Applied Materials reported an 82 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit late Wednesday, missing estimates by a penny a share. The company also warned that the current quarter may miss estimates.
Countering the negative tech picture was positive news for the United States in the war against terrorism as well as declining oil prices.
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CNNfn's Lou Dobbs wraps up Thursday's session.
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Investors got some reassurance from the continued pressure on Congress to produce an economic stimulus package before the year-end holiday break, if not sooner. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill became the third member of the Bush administration in three days to publicly urge Congress to get things rolling.
Reports from Afghanistan said anti-Taliban forces made progress in the northern city of Kanduz, and that eight Western aid workers - including two American women -- were released to their embassies in Pakistan after being imprisoned for three months. The Pentagon also released information saying that some al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders were killed in the last two days of air strikes.
"The market is focused on the potential for Congress to help with a stimulus package and on the news out of Afghanistan. The release of the aid workers was certainly seen as a good sign," said Michael Carty, principal at New Millennium Advisors.
Treasury prices fell sharply by the close, with the 10-year note yield rising more than a quarter percentage point to 4.75 percent from 4.49 percent late Wednesday. The dollar was flat against the euro and up versus the yen.
Asian stocks closed higher, while European stocks were modestly lower in late trade.
Market breadth was mixed. On the Nasdaq, decliners led advancers 4-to-3 as 1.96 billion shares traded. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers edged winners 8-to-7 as 1.40 billion shares changed hands.
U.S. stocks have been on a strong run of late, rallying the past two sessions in particular and sharply overall since reaching recent lows on Friday, Sept. 21, 10 days after the terrorist attacks against New York and Washington.
Stocks have taken off since this key date, even without the benefit of supportive economic data, Grace Fey, Portfolio Manager, Frontier Capital management, told CNNfn's Halftime Report. (605K AIFF) (605K WAV)
Investors look to ride the oil slide
A continued slide in oil prices also gave a boost to market sentiment, with investors likening the prospect of the continuation of cheap fuel costs. Light sweet oil futures skidded $2.17 a barrel in New York to $17.84, hitting two-year lows.
On Wednesday, OPEC ministers said they are prepared to cut production by 1.5 million barrels per day but will delay the action until Jan. 1, pending negotiations with Russia and other non-OPEC oil producers. OPEC's 11 members supply about 40 per cent of the world's oil.
Dow component Exxon Mobil(XOM: down $1.51 to $37.19, Research, Estimates) was one of a number of oil stocks trading lower on the news.
"What happened in the oil sector seemed to be the biggest news of the day," John Pickett, New York Stock Exchange member of LaBranche & Co. told CNNfn's Street Sweep.
Pickett said the fact that Thursday's trade showed good volume despite little change in the final numbers was representative of investors rotating money out of select techs and many oil stocks and into sectors like retail and transportation, among others.
IBM, Microsoft among actives
Airlines, networking issues, retail and computer hardware were among the sectors that added strength to the market, while some financial and oil stocks were lower.
IBM (IBM: up $0.40 to $114.75, Research, Estimates) said late Wednesday at its analyst meeting that although tech product demand is dipping, its service business has benefited.
Microsoft (MSFT: up $0.17 to $66.12, Research, Estimates) launched its Xbox gaming console.
Dow component Eastman Kodak (EK: up $1.34 to $28.62, Research, Estimates) got a boost after it said it will buy Encad, a digital image printing technology company, for $25 million. The move makes the troubled photography company the No. 3 seller of wide-format inkjets, a $2.4 billion per-year market.
The airline sector was one of the day's big gainers after UAL (UAL: up $0.82 to $12.71, Research, Estimates) unit United Airlines said it will become the first major carrier to install Tasers, or stun guns, in all cockpits. Also affecting the industry was word that House and Senate negotiators had reached agreement on an airline security measure. AMR (AMR: up $0.81 to $18.75, Research, Estimates) and Delta Air Lines (DAL: up $1.28 to $27.25, Research, Estimates) were among the winners.
Merrill Lynch (MER: down $1.20 to $50.70, Research, Estimates) and Lehman Bros. (LEH: down $1.99 to $69.26, Research, Estimates) traded lower after UBS Warburg downgraded its rating on the financial sector, while Citigroup (C: Research, Estimates) and American Express (AXP: Research, Estimates) announced job cuts.
On an upbeat note for the beleaguered IPO market, Weight Watchers (WTW: Research, Estimates) performed well in its first day of trading, rising $5.50 to $29.50.
Techs flipflop on Applied Materials, Lucent
Applied Materials bullied the semiconductors throughout most of the day. Intel (INTC: down $0.54 to $30.78, Research, Estimates) and KLA-Tencor (KLAC: down $0.17 to $49.45, Research, Estimates) were among the chips moving lower.
Telecommunications equipment maker Lucent Technologies (LU: down $0.13 to $7.72, Research, Estimates) will probably sell its fiber-optic business for less than the $2.75 billion originally agreed on, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Agile Software (AGIL: down $2.26 to $13.73, Research, Estimates) reported a fiscal second-quarter loss that was narrower than analysts' estimates and the loss it reported one year earlier. However, the business software maker said it was seeing demand for its products flatten.
Yahoo! (YHOO: down $0.38 to $14.83, Research, Estimates) was active amid news from its analyst day that it is cutting 400 workers in a company-wide restructuring.
In the day's major economic news, the Labor Department reported that the number of new jobless claims filed in the United States last week fell by 8,000 to 444,000. But the number of people receiving unemployment benefits stood at an almost 19-year high.
After the close of trade, computer hardware maker Dell Computer (DELL: up $0.23 to $27.69, Research, Estimates) reported earnings of 16 cents a share, an almost 40 percent decline from the 25 cents earned one year earlier, but nonetheless edging analysts' estimates by a penny. The company also confirmed its outlook for the current quarter and said it expects to see slightly better revenue and volume.
Apparel retailer Gap (GPS: down $0.53 to $14.55, Research, Estimates) said it lost six cents a share, in line with estimates, but down considerably from the 21 cents per share earned one year earlier. 
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