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Wall Street Stocks Expected to Open Mixed

Posted on: Thursday, 1 April 2004, 06:00 CST

NEW YORK - U.S. stocks are set to open mixed Thursday, the first day of the second quarter. Dow Jones futures fell 5 points recently, to 10,345. However, Nasdaq futures were unchanged, and S&P futures were 1.4 points higher.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index was the only one of the indexes to finish the quarter in the black, by rising 1.3 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.9 percent, breaking a string of three consecutive quarterly gains, and the Nasdaq composite index declined 0.5 percent, ending its own run of five straight quarterly rises.

In London, the FTSE 100 Index rose 15.1 points recently, to 4,400.8. Markets in France and Germany also were trading higher, although trading has been light in those places as well as the U.K. ahead of the European Central Bank's decision on interest rates. One market watcher expects rates to remain unchanged. The decision is expected at about 6:45 a.m. EST.

In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average closed down 31.97 points, or 0.3 percent, at 11,683.42 on the first day of trading in the new fiscal year. Falling exporter issues amid a weak U.S. dollar/Japanese yen performance put pressure on the index, and market players slashed their exposure to technology and auto stocks.

In U.S. corporate news, Martha Stewart's lawyers asked for a new trial, alleging that one of the jurors who convicted her of lying to federal investigators himself lied to get on the jury. The lawyers said in legal papers filed Wednesday that juror Chappell Hartridge failed to disclose on his jury questionnaire that he once was arrested on assault charges and was sued three times.

Late Wednesday, Starbucks Corp. posted March same-store sales growth of 12 percent and revenue growth of 30 percent, to $494 million from $380 million. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of 47 cents a share, up from 35 cents a share a year earlier.

SuperGen Inc. released its Phase III clinical trial data on its myelodysplastic syndromes treatment Dacogen and said it expects to file a New Drug Application with the Food and Drug Administration by the third quarter. But patients who received Dacogen experienced more adverse events, SuperGen warned, and the company's shares plummeted in late trading.

A heavy day for economic data includes the Institute for Supply Management's March manufacturing activity reading, expected to come in at 61.0, compared with 61.4 in February. Any reading above 50 indicates manufacturing activity is growing. The ISM reading is scheduled for 10 a.m.

The Labor Department is slated to release its weekly jobless claims data at 8:30 a.m. Economists are looking for claims to inch up 1,000 jobs to 340,000 in the week ended March 27. Also reporting is the Commerce Department, set to release its construction spending report for February at 10 a.m. U.S. auto makers will also report its March sales figures.

Stocks fell but finished well above their session lows as investors especially took to Sabre Holdings Inc., Best Buy Co. and AMR Corp. on the first quarter's last day of trading Wednesday. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 24 points, or 0.23 percent, to 10,357.70, after being down as much as 67 points. The Nasdaq composite index fell 6.41, or 0.32 percent, to 1,994.22, and the S&P 500 shed 0.79, or 0.07 percent, to 1,126.21.

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