Stocks End Week on Mixed Note

N E W  Y O R K, July 27, 2001 -- Stocks posted slight gains today, although blue chips fell, as investors bought shares of companies that had upbeat results and unloaded those adding tothe market's earnings apprehension.

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A government report showing the economy atits weakest in eight years sparked light selling, as did worse-than-anticipated results from JDS Uniphase.

Analysts said the muted response reflected how accustomedinvestors have become to bad news, given the dismal second-quarterearnings of recent weeks. They also said the market was reassuredby indications that that the outlook for semiconductor stocks couldbe improving.

Broader Indexes Advanced

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 38.96 at 10,416.67,according to preliminary calculations, cutting short a two-daywinning streak.

Broader stock indicators advanced. The Standard & Poor's 500index gained 2.89 to 1,205.82, while the Nasdaq composite indexrose 6.11 to 2,029.07.

For the week, the three indexes made little progress, despite amassive selloff Monday and Tuesday that sent the Dow down 335points. The Dow ended the week off about 1.5 percent, while theother two indicators fell by less than a percent.

"There's no catalyst on the earnings side short-term to give usa strong headwind, so we're stuck," said Robert Harrington,co-head of listed block trading at UBS Warburg. "The only goodthing I can say it that the negative news is not bringing the wholemarket down."

Investors continued to pore over earnings reports, looking forindications of where business is headed.

JDS Uniphase was pummeled, falling 95 cents, or 10 percent, to$8.55, after reporting a wider-than-expected quarterly loss andwarning of revenue shortfalls ahead. The optical networking companyalso announced 7,000 more job cuts — bringing the total for theyear to 16,000, or more than half of its staff.

Dow’s Losses Concentrated

The Dow's losses came from a handful of stocks, includingtechnology bellwethers Intel, which fell 61 cents to $29.22, andMicrosoft, which was down $1.14 at $65.47. DuPont, which releaseddisappointing results early in the week, also suffered, falling$1.06 to $42.13.

The news was better in semiconductors, a technology subsectorwhose recovery is considered a precursor to any technologyturnaround. Investors sent LSI Logic up $1.70 to $20.85 after thecompany said it expects business to bottom out in the currentquarter.

But Wall Street had little reaction to a Commerce Departmentreport released Friday that showed the economy slowed to a 0.7growth rate this spring, the worst performance in eight years, asbusinesses cut investment spending by the largest amount in nearlytwo decades.

"There was some relief that the number wasn't negative … thatwe're not in a recession, and we're closer every day to interestrate cuts helping the economy," said Barry Hyman, chief investmentstrategist at Ehrenkrantz King Nussbaum.

Still, most companies remain unable to say when business willimprove. That inability has translated into uncertainty on WallStreet that has kept many investors on the sidelines. The threemajor stocks indexes, the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500, have all madelittle progress since mid-April.

Also today, US Airways dropped 89 cents to $17.26 after theJustice Department said it would fight to block its proposed mergerwith United Airlines on the grounds it would "reduce competition,raise fares and harm consumers." UAL, United's parent corporation,fell 29 cents to $33.63.

Advancing issues led decliners nearly 4 to 3 on the New YorkStock Exchange. Volume came to nearly 1.02 billion shares, comparedwith 1.21 billion Thursday.

The Russell 2000 index fell 0.06 to 485.01.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.5 percent. InEurope, Germany's DAX index climbed 1.4 percent, Britain's FT-SE100 rose 2.2 percent, and France's CAC-40 gained 2.6

Thursday’s Highlights

Stocks clambered higher Thursday as investors lookedpast bad news from computer makers Compaq Computer and Hewlett-Packard, and bet tax refunds and six interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve will boost economic growth and corporate profits.

The Dow Jones industrial average erased an earlyloss to close with a gain of 49.96 points, or 0.48 percent, at10,455.63. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose12.44 points, or 1.04 percent, to 1,202.93.

The technology-packed Nasdaq Composite Index gained 38.64 points, or 1.95 percent, to 2,022.96. Seven ofthe 10 most active Nasdaq stocks rose, including Cisco SystemsInc., up 68 cents to $19.38.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report-->