Market Movers: Blue Chips Catch a Break

May 11 2000

The stock market enjoyed a rally today, rising for the first time this week and bringing slight relief from earlier losses. The Nasdaq climbed 3.4 percent, or 114.78, to 3499.51. The Dow rose 1.7 percent, or 178.19, to close at 10545.97.

News of a slight drop-off in consumer spending seemed to spur today's buying spree. This morning, the government announced a decrease in retail sales for the month of April. That figure had been expected to increase, and its drop seemed to momentarily check growing fears of inflation. Some observers are hoping that the positive news will prevent the Fed from taking severe action on interest rates.

The Federal Open Market Committee will meet next Tuesday. An interest rate hike of 50 basis points has been widely expected, and it is unclear whether today's retail news will alter that decision. The uncertainty didn't stop investors from buying today, however. Stocks were up almost across the board, with beleaguered tech stocks leading the way.

In the large-cap sector, Intel jumped nearly 9 percent to $115.31. Oracle was up 6 percent to $71.56, and Hewlett-Packard rose 3 percent to $130.18. Sun Microsystems was one of the few to slip, however, falling 1 percent to $77.

The Internet sector had some strong recoveries today, as well. Interwoven jumped 11 percent to $57.62, EBay rose 6 percent to $117.75, and Yahoo was up 5.5 percent to $125.50. DoubleClick rose 7 percent to $52.43, and Vignette went up 6 percent to $49.75. Internet Capital Group was among today's losers, dropping 7 percent to $31.56. Ariba was down as well, falling 1.6 percent to $66.50.

The Dow saw some light losses today, with ATT down 1.2 percent to $25.81 and Wal-Mart down 1.2 percent to $56. But the index was led up by gains in IBM, up 1 percent to $104.12, and Microsoft , up 2.5 percent to $67.81. Coca-Cola gained 1.3 percent today to close at $53.50.