Stocks End Week Amid Tech Glitches

NEW YORK – Stocks ended mixed on a day when index performance was overshadowed by technical glitches at Nasdaq.

Technology problems plagued Nasdaq's computer system,  forcing the No. 2 U.S. stock market to halt trading for the second straight day. Nasdaq extended trading until 5 p.m. EDT, one hour later than the usual closing time.

The outage rippled through exchanges and trading desks across the nation: The Chicago futures and options exchanges also extended trading hours and the main U.S. stock market gauges kept ticking beyond their normal 4 p.m. close.

``There are market makers who are not seeing their quotes, and so it's not anything like a normal environment,'' said Matthew Johnson, head of U.S. cash trading at Lehman Brothers. ''It's organized chaos, but it's very chaotic,'' he said of trading in the extended session.

The Nasdaq Composite Index finished the session up 34.12 points, or 1.61 percent, at 2,159.58, bolstered as investors bet there may be a light at the end of the tunnel for a sector badly bruised by slowing U.S. economic growth.The high-tech sector had lead the market higher earlier in the session as investors bet there may be a light at the end of the tunnel for a sector badly bruised by slowing U.S. economic growth.

The Dow Jones industrial average however, finished down 66.49 points, or 0.63 percent, at 10,499.72, hurt by Honeywell International Inc. Honeywell slumped $3.20 to $35, after its suitor General Electric Co. rejected its last-ditch bid to save the $40 billion merger deal between the companies.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index finished down 2.05 points, or 0.17 percent, at 1,224.15.

On the last day of a dismal quarter, one that was marred by more than 600 profit warnings, analysts said the market is beginning to look ahead. With six interest rate cuts this year - the latest delivered Wednesday - investors believe business could indeed turn around in the second half of 2001.

Technology stocks also continued to benefit by association with Microsoft, which itself rose 26 cents to $73. A federal appeals court on Thursday reversed a lower court ruling ordering the breakup of the company. Microsoft, a Dow industrial, slipped 93 cents to $71.81.

Tech advancers included PMC-Sierra, which rose $1.92 to $31.07, and Dow industrial Hewlett-Packard, up $1.35 at $28.60.

The market also welcomed a rise in the Chicagoland Business Barometer in June to a seasonally adjusted 44.4, the highest level this year. ``This rise could indicate the worst is over,'' the National Association of Purchasing Management-Chicago said.

Another positive for the economy came from the University of Michigan's full-month report on consumer sentiment, which was reported to have risen to 92.6 in June from 92 in May.

Cisco Systems Inc., the world's largest maker of gear that powers the Internet, rose 68 cents to $19.26. Business software maker Oracle Corp. gained 68 cents at $19.86. Intel Corp., the world's largest maker of computer chips, climbed 84 cents to $30.48.

Agere Systems Inc. gained 75 cents at $6.74. The company, a Lucent Technologies Inc. spin-off, is cutting about 25 percent of its work force and expects to take up to $900 million in charges as it restructures to cope with the severe downturn in the semiconductor industry. Lucent rose 38 cents to $6.14.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners nearly 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was 1.72 billion shares, compared with 1.30 billion on Thursday.

The Russell 2000, which measures the performance of smaller company stocks, index rose 9.65 to 512.64.

Overseas markets were higher Friday. Japan's Nikkei stock average closed up 2.3 percent. In Europe, Germany's DAX index rose 1.5 percent, France's CAC-40 climbed 1.8 percent, and Britain's FT-SE 100 inched up 0.1 percent.

-- Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.