Stocks traded in a narrow range Friday as investors tried to get a fix on how continuing uncertainty abroad will play out on corporate earnings. A modest afternoon rally made one thing clear, though. The market is unfazed by the prospect of seeing four hours of Bill Clinton losing his cool during videotaped testimony.
"I don't think Wall Street cares that much," Jean Orr, an analyst at Nutmeg Securities, said of the House Judiciary Committee's unsurprising decision to release lots more embarrassing info about the president's behavior. "The market is much more concerned about what's going on around the world."
Those concerns caused share prices to zig-zag back and forth all day before finally settling on the plus side. The Wired Index rose 0.74 points to close at 372.61. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 21.89 to 7895.66 -- not much, but a considerably better showing than Thursday's 216-point tumble.
While Orr conceded that market players, like just about everyone else, probably will be glued to the TV when the Clinton video plays next week, she said the latest installment of "Monica Does Washington" isn't anywhere as important as economic woes in Asia and Latin America.
Increasing tension between Iran and Afghanistan, Orr added, is heightening investors' anxiety. "Any time there is concern about war or conflict, it moves the market," she observed.
At least there was smidgen of positive news from overseas. Tokyo's Nikkei average rose almost 1 percent Friday as the country's politicians finally cut a deal to rescue the ailing Japanese banking system. The accord comes just days before Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi holds talks with Clinton in New York.
Another force weighing on trade was the so-called triple witching of expiring stock futures and options -- something that happens like clockwork every quarter, but which still manages to spook the market and make people nervous.
Tech stocks were among the more volatile shares changing hands, buffeted in part by an announcement from Japanese electronics giant NEC that it will post a loss for the first half of the year. NEC blamed its misfortune on a global slump in chip sales.
Dell Computer (DELL) slipped 25 cents to US$57.88, while Intel (INTC) closed unchanged at $83. Cisco Systems (CSCO) shed 44 cents to $61.06, but Microsoft (MSFT) inched 44 cents higher to $105.38.
Data services provider Acxiom (ACXM) jumped $2.25, or 11 percent, to $23 after finalizing its acquisition of rival May & Speh. The deal, first announced in May, involves a stock swap valued at about $625 million.
Industrial data-storage heavyweight EMC (EMC) declined $1.69 to $53.38 as Executive Vice President John Egan announced he'll be leaving the company to pursue, as they say, "other interests." Egan is the son of EMC's co-founder, and had been viewed as a likely successor to CEO Michael Ruettgers.
First Data (FDC), a leading provider of electronic payment and credit card services, advanced 6 cents to $24.75 after CEO Henry Duques told analysts that next year's performance should be "stronger." On Thursday, the company lowered its earnings expectations for the year.
Lucent Technologies (LU) climbed 63 cents to $72.75 after Prudential Securities reiterated a "strong buy" rating for the company's shares. Separately, Lucent said it had landed a $30 million contract to build a fiber-optic telecom network in Brunei.
Daimler-Benz (DAI) rose $1.44 to $88.88 after Chrysler shareholders approved their firm's approximately $40 billion buyout by the German automaker.
The Nasdaq gained 17.52 points to 1663.77, and the S&P 500 was 1.22 higher at 1020.09.
