Wall Street opens flat

Trading opened flat on the Nasdaq composite and slightly lower on the DJIA.

Dealers noted sentiment among new economy stocks should be supported by several positive research notes for technology stocks, with the broader market seen undermined by corporate accounting fears.

Dealers said buying demand for technology stocks should be fueled by new JP Morgan upgrades for Xilinx and Altera.

Dell is expected to benefit from a bullish note from Merrill Lynch, which urged investors to view recent declines in the stock price as a buying opportunity.

Not all tech shares are expected to share in the positive trend, though. Cisco could drop sharply due to the fact that UBS Warburg reduced its 2002 and 2003 earnings per share estimates for the company, citing weakness in the enterprise market.

The broader market once more is expected to be pressured by the continuing fallout from the Enron bankruptcy and the related public confidence crisis in the stock market and accounting professions.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is examining JP Morgan Chase & Co's accounting in commodity-related trades with Enron Corp, citing internal central bank documents.

The trades being reviewed appear to relate to Mahonia Ltd, an offshore entity set up by the old Chase Manhattan Bank through which it did substantial business with Enron.

TRW should be lifted by Northrop Grumman's offer to buy the company for $47 per share. There was no immediate word from TRW if it considers the takeover offer to be hostile.

Bristol-Myers should be pressured by a decision late yesterday by US District Court Judge John Koeltl that Bristol-Myers Squibb improperly listed an additional patent on its anxiety treatment BuSpar, which kept generic competition off the market for months.

The decision could force Bristol-Myers to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines.

In addition, according to news reports, US antitrust enforcers in Washington have said they will not oppose a bid by takeover artist Carl Icahn to buy a stake of ImClone Systems, which is battling Bristol-Myers for control of their joint Erbitux cancer treatment.