Techs And Small Caps Advance In A Nervous Market

The markets stayed close to their openings Wednesday as technology stocks and small-cap issues fared better than big companies. Investors battled anxiety about a possible terrorist attack and also worried that the economy might be slowing more than they've hoped.

Fears of terrorism were reawakened as the government warned of intelligence that al-Qaida is determined to attack the United States this summer. And a Commerce Department report that orders for durable goods declined and new home sales dropped last month provided some evidence that the booming economy is cooling.

The InformationWeek 100 rose 1.36 points, or 0.4%, to 316.01. The Nasdaq composite index rose 11.50 points, or 0.6%, to 1,976.15. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 1.89 points, or 0.2%, to 1,114.94, while the Dow industrials fell 7.73 points, or 0.1%, to 10,109.89--one day after gaining 160 points.

Lucent Technologies rose 22 cents, or 6.8%, to $3.48; EMC rose 4.7%, or 50 cents, to $11.20; Hewlett-Packard rose 23 cents, or 1.1%, to $21.25; AT&T rose 12 cents, or 0.7%, to $16.61; Nokia fell 11 cents, or 0.8%, to $13.41; and BellSouth fell 38 cents, or 1.5%, to $24.93. The Nasdaq-100 tracking stock was up 23 cents, or 0.6%, to $36.19, as about 93.7 million shares changed hands.

The latest warnings of a possible domestic terror attack had little immediate effect, but that could soon change, Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at Spencer Clarke LLC, told The Associated Press. "We've seen terror concerns, along with the situation in Iraq, weigh pretty heavily on the markets," Sheldon said. "I don't think this latest alert is priced in yet, and, depending on how serious it is, it could cause a drop over the next few days, or at least keep stocks in this range."

See the full listing of all the companies in the InformationWeek 100 and the top 5 percentage winners and losers for the last closing at informationweek.com/stocks.