950819

Nasdaq hits third

straight record,

blue chips lower

NEW YORK: The Nasdaq market rose to set a third straight record Friday, boosted by strong earnings from high technology firms, while blue-chip stocks fell again on nagging worries about the strong dollar.

"It's really a fractured market," said David Holt, director of technical research at Wedbush Morgan.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped for the fourth straight day, falling 13.03 points to 4,617.60. In the broader market, advancing issues beat losers 1,190 to 995 on volume of 312 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

After surging over 41 points Monday, the Dow ended the week with a loss of 0.70 of a point.

Despite some profit-taking, there was enough buying in high technology stocks and other issues to push the Nasdaq index up 2.04 points to 1,031.28, surpassing Thursday's record of 1,029.24 to set the week's fourth record. The only in the index decline was on Tuesday when the index lost just 0.07 of a point.

Blue chips had hovered near unchanged levels for much of the day but dipped late in the session as volatility linked to the "double witching" expiration of individual and index options kicked in. Despite the expirations, volume was moderate as many traders left early.

"I think people who made a lot of money in high tech holdings this week have decided to take profits and go home," said Jack Shaughnessy, director of research at Advest.

Concern that the stronger dollar will trim foreign profits continued to take its toll on large multinational stocks in the Dow. Coca-Cola Co., which was downgraded by Goldman Sachs, dropped 1-3/8 to 63, while Eastman Kodak Co. gave up 1-1/4 to 57-3/4.

Holt said Wall Street has held steady because investors are rotating cash from one group, including multinationals, to others, instead of pulling out of the market altogether.

Money is "only going from one room to the other and not leaving the house," keeping the overall market locked in a narrow range, Holt said.

The market may be in for a small scale pullback over the next couple of weeks, Shaughnessy said.

He cited investor expectations that the Federal Reserve will not cut interest rates at a policy meeting Tuesday and worries that the rally in high technology stocks may falter after the launch of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system on Thursday.

Shaughnessy said he saw the Dow at 4,950 by year's end.

Upjohn Co. gained 3-3/8 to 39-5/8 on news reports the drug company may be in merger talks with Sweden's Pharmacia AB.

British pharmaceutical company Fisons Plc gained 5 to 16-3/4 after Rhone-Poulenc Rorer launched a 1.7 billion British pound ($2.6 billion) bid for the company. Fisons rejected the bid, saying it was too low.

Rhone-Poulenc Rorer ended off 1-1/4 to 42-1/8.

Cisco Systems jumped 5-15/64 to 66-7/64 and Dell Computer rose 1-7/8 to 76-1/8. But other technology stocks fell victim to profit-taking.

Compaq Computer Corp. fell 1-5/8 to 52-5/8 and International Business Machines Corp. gave back 2-1/4 to 111-3/8. Both firms this week cut personal computer prices.

Prudential Securities downgraded its rating on Caterpillar Inc. to hold from buy. It fell 1 to 67-3/4.

The Standard & Poor's composite index of 500 stocks rose 0.17 to 559.21. The American Stock Exchange index rose 0.34 to 529.20.

The NYSE Composite index of all listed common stocks rose 0.16 to 299.79. It rose 2.02 in the week. The average price per share rose 2 cents.

The Wilshire Associates Equity Index -- the market value of NYSE, American and Nasdaq issues -- was 5,575.970, up 5.493, or 0.10 percent. It rose 65.229 from 5,510.740 last Friday.-Reuter