Stocks suffering from Telecom woes in early trading

Posted 10:29AM on Monday 22nd April 2002 ( 23 years ago )

NEW YORK - Disappointing results from Lucent and Ericsson pulled stocks lower Monday as investors worried that the problems delaying a telecom turnaround are also plaguing other sectors. In the first hour of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 35.98, or 0.4 percent, to 10,221.13. Broader stock indicators also slipped. The technology-focused Nasdaq composite index was down 26.01, or 1.5 percent, at 1,770.82. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was off 6.96, or 0.6 percent, at 1,118.21. Telecommunications company Lucent fell 17 cents to $14.12 after reporting a $495 million quarterly loss. Investors also sold Ericsson, another telecom company, after it announced up to 17,000 job cuts, about 20 percent of its work force, and reduced its forecast for future quarters. The stock lost 90 cents to $2.64. The news was the latest difficulty for the troubled telecom sector, which has sold off repeatedly in recent months on concerns that it will be a while before companies are able to spend significantly on its products. Lucent and Ericsson's performance made investors even more nervous about other telecom stocks. AT&T tumbled 71 cents, or 4.9 percent, to $13.79, ahead of earnings due out later this week. The selling spread to other technology stocks. Cisco Systems dropped 42 cents to $14.84, while Microsoft fell 71 cents to $56.49. Non-technology stocks were mixed. 3M rose 60 cents to $125.49 after reporting first-quarter results slightly ahead of Wall Street's expectations. But General Electric lost 34 cents to $33.36. The Russell 2000 index fell 3.03 to 514.37. Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average advanced 1.8 percent. In afternoon trading, Germany's DAX index was down 1.9 percent, Britain's FT-SE 100 was up 0.5 percent, and France's CAC-40 lost 1.6 percent. ------ On the Net: New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

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