All it took were a few kind words about the Internet to set Wall Street cooking in mid-afternoon trading Monday. President Clinton's impeachment and the bombing of Iraq were distant concerns at best.
The Wired Index gained 21.78 points to 526, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 144.95 higher at 9048.58. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 46.78 to 2132.92, and the S&P 500 was up 17.60 at 1205.63.
Nearly every Net stock of note blasted into record territory after Mary Meeker, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's influential Internet analyst, sang their praises in an interview with Barron's. She observed that these stocks remain a hot pick in light of how the number of Internet users has increased to 80 million from a mere 5 million in 1995, illustrating that adoption of online technology has outpaced that of both television and radio.
Among the stocks specifically cited by Meeker as showing strong promise were Amazon.com (AMZN), which jumped $32.75, or 11 percent, to $319.44, and Yahoo (YHOO), which advanced $28.06, or 13 percent, to $240.38. She also smiled on eBay (EBAY), which surged $38.94, or 15 percent, to $291.19, and At Home (ATHM), which was up $6.13, or 9.1 percent, at $73.25.
America Online (AOL) -- another fave on the Meeker Hit Parade -- supported its standing with some actual news. The company's shares rose $11.06, or 11 percent, to $115.31 on word that AOL's service will be featured on all Dell Computer PCs sold in the United States and Canada. For its part, Dell (DELL) was $2.69 higher at $70.56.
Among other Net stocks, Onsale (ONSL) soared $26.56, or 61 percent, to $70.25 after inking an agreement to provide online auction pricing to Yahoo's small-business page. And Internet service provider EarthLink Network (ELNK) gained $7.75, or 12 percent, to $70.38 as it filed to offer 2.5 million additional shares in common stock, with proceeds to be used in part for new acquisitions.
Traders had little to say about the doings in Washington and Baghdad. In fact, about the only current event on anyone's radar screen was Tuesday's meeting of the Federal Reserve. However, hardly anyone expects Greenspan & Co. to cut interest rates again in the final get-together of the year.
The high-flying Internet stocks had a suitably incendiary effect on leading tech issues. Cisco Systems (CSCO) climbed $5 to a record $95.44, and Microsoft (MSFT) was up $3.19 at $141. International Business Machines (IBM) advanced $5 to $176.56, and Intel (INTC) was $2.75 higher at $122.75.
Amgen (AMGN) accelerated $13.06, or 15 percent, to $101.19 after the biotech firm retained all rights to its popular anemia drug Epogen in an arbitration squabble with Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). J&J, which had been seeking permission to sell a next-generation version of the drug, fell $2.81 to $76.69.
In telecom, Lucent Technologies (LU) rose $4.88 to $103.25 after announcing the sale of its mobile-phone research division to Motorola for an undisclosed sum. In that Lucent was planning to shut down the division in any case, the deal comes as an early Christmas present for the company.
