By Gavin Adamson
(October 21 – 17:00 ET) – A Y2K warning by IBM meant the trading day began with a slide before climbing back to an otherwise upside market day in North America.
The Dow dropped heavily in the morning before recovering. IBM Inc. issued an earnings warning and many companies have put a freeze on hardware spending until after Y2K. That’s sure to cut into profits early next year. IBM itself dropped 15%, or US$15 5/8 to $91 3/8, but it dragged down many hardware companies. Sun Microsystems Inc. lost US$3 7/16 to $92 7/8. The Dow closed 94.67 lower, to 10,297.00. The S&P lost 0.5%, to 1283.61 as well.
The hardware warning was heard in Canada as well. ATI Tech was down C$1.05 in afternoon trading on the TSE, and Nortel Networks Inc. had slipped by 30 cents to $76.45.
The continued slide of oil and gold prices pushed those sectors down, and the VSE had slipped by 2 points late in the day, but the TSE inched up 21.63 to 6952.38 at the end of the day.
Third quarter corporate earnings reports continue to roll in, buoying the markets against inflationary fears. AOL Inc. beat earnings reports, pushing its stock up by US$4 to $122 on Nasdaq. Nokia also beat earnings expectations by 10%, or 5 cents, and jumped US$8 1/4 to $104. Nasdaq took on 13.82 points, to close at 2,801.95.
Elsewhere in Canada, the ME picked up 11.27 to close at 3,711.04, and the ASE was trading upwards in late pacific trading, up almost 5 points to 2823.14.