Semiconductors bounce back

Declining issues outnumbered advancers 569 to 501, 282 were unchanged. Total volume for the day was 130 million shares.

Seven of the 14 sub-indices were up for the day , with conglomerates and oil and gas leading the way up on slight advances. On the downside, communications and media, conglomerates and industrial products posted relatively larger losses.

Old school industrial play Bombardier was up over 4% today on news that a NATO pilot-training initiative it runs has garnered commitments from NATO member states to the tune of $3.5 billion over 20 years.

Berkeley Petroleum was up 5.56% on news that the Berkeley East Lost Hills gas development outside of Los Angeles, in which it owns a stake, will begin producing 15 million cubic feet of gas per day.

Rogers common stock was down 2.36% the day after Videotron, the object of a takeover bid by Rogers, declared a profit in the third quarter. Only a year ago Videotron posted a loss on the quarter after a failed cable incursion into the U.S.

The CDNX was also down, it closed at 3,420.60 after dropping 21.58 points.

The Canadian dollar ended the day at US67.31¢.

Saudi Arabia’s promise to bring the price of oil down by upping oil exports has had an effect. The price of U.S. crude dropped for the second straight day, finally closing below $30 a barrel. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate closed at $29.99 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Volume was light on the New York Stock Exchange as traders sit on their hands in advance of June employment numbers out tomorrow morning. Only 791 million shares were traded.

The broader market was also helped by increases in Microsoft, Intel, Home Depot and Exxon which led the way up for most of the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average couldn’t hang on, though, to the gains and it ended the day down 2.13 points to close at 10,481.47.

Many of those trades were again in the semiconductor sector as those stocks that took a drubbing yesterday tried to stage a rally. Though they made some gains, the depth of yesterday’s losses was enough to keep them in the red. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which lost 9.3% yesterday rebounded 3.8% Thursday.

Other tech stocks that got caught in Wednesday’s downdraft, but experienced slight recoveries today include BMC Software, Computer Associates and Oracle. Entrust Technologies was also on the upswing today after shedding points Wednesday. IBM continued a weeklong downward journey, giving up another 3-7/16 points.

On the downside Visual Networks said it will miss analyst’s earnings estimates and dropped 14%, and Qwest Communications lost 1-7/8 on news of a Bear Stearns downgrade.

The NASDAQ composite ended up taking back much of the ground it lost yesterday. After closing down 129 points on Wednesday it tacked on 87.24 today to close at 3,960.34.

The S&P 500 was up 10.44 points to end at 1,456.67.

Though this week has seen light trading, as traders head off on vacation, NASDAQ reported today that volume was up drastically in the first part of 2000. The first six months of 2000 saw some $10.8 trillion traded, compared to “only” $4.8 trillion in 1999. That’s an increase of 125%.