Wall Street mixed at mid-afternoon
The New York equities markets were mixed in mid-afternoon trading on Monday. While the telecommunications equipment sector helped the Nasdaq Composite add 0.2 percent to 2,316.74, both the Down Joines Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were down on the day. The Dow had lost 0.3 percent at mid-afternoon, to 11,248.67, while the S&P was down by 0.1 percent to 1,301.31.
The telecommunications equipment makers were still being helped by the possibility of a merger between Lucent and Alcatel of France. Prudential Equity reiterated its rating of “overweight” on Lucent, which added 1.3 percent to $3.10. This advance was on top of an 8.5 percent gain Friday. Elsewhere in the sector, Qualcomm was up 1.1 percent to $49.91, while Ciena gained 1.8 percent to $55.24 and JDS Uniphase added 0.3 percent to $4.04.
The home construction sector was also up during the day. Toll Brothers gained 3.9 percent to $35.69 on an upgrade from “market perform” to “outperform” from Wachovia. Among other homebuilders, Ryland was up 1.6 percent to $71.96, while Lennar added 0.9 percent to $60.44.
The pharmaceuticals sector was mixed, as Santarus gained 5.9 percent to $6.62 on a report that the FDA had approved a new form of its heartburn drug Zegerid. On the other hand, Encysive Pharmaceuticals dropped 46.8 percent to $4.83 after the FDA asked for more trials on Encysive’s high blood pressure drug Thelin.
Elsewhere, consumer electronics retailer Circuit City received an upgrade from Lehman Brothers, sending its shares up 1.5 percent to $24.62.
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