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Stocks trimmed losses in the final hour of trading Wednesday. 

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 40.55 points to close at
8000.60. The Nasdaq composite index was down 12.22 to 1334.32 and the
S&P 500 fell 6.04 to 845.13. Declines led advances, 1883-1163, on the
New York Stock Exchange in volume of 1,062,910,000 shares. Breadth was
similar on Nasdaq, with declines leading advances, 1957-1207.
Likewise, the Arms index, or Trin, was 1.38 on the NYSE and 1.36 on
Nasdaq.

Bonds were higher, the 10-year note yield falling to 3.88% from 3.95%
late Tuesday.

(AP) "There is no sign that things have turned. The problems that
brought you here (the war and the economy) have not gone away," Larry
Wachtel, market strategist for Prudential Securities said. The gains
made over the past two trading days have "no legs (and) never had any
volume," he said.

(AP) "It's short-term profit-taking after the last two days of
rallies," said Mike Kayes, chief investment officer at Eastover
Capital in Charlotte, N.C. "The market is just going to bounce around
until we have some kind of military action in Iraq."

(AP) "All the economic and company news that we've seen have been
overshadowed by developments from the Middle East. Clearly that's the
800 pound gorilla ... dominating all investment decisions," said A.C.
Moore, chief investment strategist for Dunvegan Associates.

"I don't see the markets going far with that confrontation hanging,"
he added. "I would think the markets may not do well unless there's a
fairly short-term successful confrontation."

The Dow open, theoretical intraday high and low: 8033.80; 8079.11;
7913.70.

(AP) MBNA Corp. (NYSE-KRB), -$2.00 to $14.50 as the most active NYSE
issue, said soured loans climbed last month, prompting several Wall
Street analysts to reduce their profit forecasts. In a regulatory
filing Tuesday, MBNA said total managed charge-offs -- which includes
loans held for securitization, loan portfolio and securitized loans --
rose 0.41 percentage point to 5.59% as of Jan. 31, compared with the
prior month.

The semiconductor equipment manufacturers' book-to-bill ratio fell to
0.92 in January from 0.94 in December, leading to declines in Applied
Materials (NASDAQ-AMAT), -$0.33 to $12.41, Novellus Systems
(NASDAQ-NVLS), -$1.02 to $29.36, and KLA-Tencor (NASDAQ-KLAC), -$0.46
to $34.65.

Standard & Poor's equity analyst Richard Tortoriello said Wednesday he
foresees worldwide semiconductor equipment sales growing 5% to 10% in
2003, a turnaround from the 2001-2002 back-to-back drops of 41% and
33%, respectively.

(AP) Morgan Stanley raised its rating to "overweight" from
"equal-weight" for Intel (NASDAQ-INTC), +$0.09 to $16.80 as the most
active Nasdaq issue, and Texas Instruments (NYSE-TXN), +$0.17 to
$16.41.

(AP) Micron Technology (NYSE-MU), +$0.27 to $7.44, said Tuesday that
it is laying off 10% of its worldwide labor force of over 18,000. It
is the first layoff the company has imposed since 1985.

Overture Services (NASDAQ-OVER), -$4.72 to $18.07, signed a definitive
agreement to acquire AltaVista's business from CMGI (NASDAQ-CMGI),
+$0.12 to $0.95, for $140 million in cash and stock, with a rough
breakdown of 4/7ths stock and 3/7ths cash. Overture said the
acquisition will be accretive to earnings by mid-2004.

(AP) InVision Technologies (NASDAQ-INVN), -$2.36 to $20.94, was
downgraded by S.G. Cowen to "underperform" from "outperform." Cowen
cited a lower allocation of government funds for bomb-detection
devices.

After the market closed Wednesday, L-3 Communications (NYSE-LLL),
+$0.90 to $38.25, said it continues to expect that it will achieve its
goal of 20% annual growth for sales and earnings, including 8% to 10%
growth excluding acquisitions, in 2003. L-3 had assumed that the
Transportation Security Administration would likely order a smaller
number of systems versus 2002 because a significant number of EDS
systems had already been ordered last year, and those assumptions
remain unchanged.

(MktNews) Housing starts climbed 0.2% in January to a seasonally
adjusted annual rate of 1.850 million, the strongest in 16 years. A
rate of 1.75 million had been expected. The strong housing data means
investors should look at homebuilding industry stocks, said analysts
at Merrill Lynch. "The eight stocks in our Homebuilding group are
selling at an average 6.0x our calendar year 2003E earnings forecasts"
and have a very favorable risk/reward tradeoff, Merrill said.

Nonetheless, homebuilders were lower Wednesday, including Lennar
(NYSE-LEN), -$0.45 to $53.50, and Centex (NYSE-CTX), -$0.24 to $56.21.

Wachovia (NYSE-WB), -$0.39 to $35.26, and Prudential Financial
(NYSE-PRU), -$0.61 to $30.31, announced Wednesday that they are
joining retail securities brokerage and clearing operations. Wachovia
will have a 62% ownership interest in the new firm, with 38% going to
Prudential.

LifePoint Hospitals (NASDAQ-LPNT), +$1.74 to $21.79, reported
fourth-quarter net income of 44 cents a share, or 45 cents excluding
an extraordinary item. Analysts surveyed by First Call expected 37
cents.

SunGard Data Systems (NYSE-SDS), +$1.45 to $20.61, reported 2002
earnings of $1.15 per share, excluding merger costs and other one-time
items, topping the company's outlook of $1.10-$1.14. The company sees
2003 earnings of $1.24-$1.29 per share. Analysts surveyed by First
Call expected $1.28.

Inter-Tel (NASDAQ-INTL), -$4.06 to $17.41, declined despite reporting
fourth-quarter net income of 33 cents a share Tuesday, topping First
Call's estimate of 30 cents.

Qwest Communications (NYSE-Q), -$0.32 to $4.05, reported
fourth-quarter net income of $1.61 per share, including benefits of
the sale of QwestDex and completion of a debt exchange offer. Revenue
fell 11% to $3.7 billion.

3D Systems (NASDAQ-TDSC), -$1.01 to $7.89, said $3 million of
equipment shipped at the end of the year could not be reported as
fourth-quarter revenue. As a result, the company does not expect to
have been profitable in the quarter.

York International (NYSE-YRK), -$1.78 to $21.44, reported
fourth-quarter net income of 55 cents a share, a penny above First
Call estimates. But the company expects continued weak equipment
markets and escalating pension, insurance, medical and steel costs to
affect 2003, leading to a break-even first quarter and earnings for
the year of $2.50.

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE-ANF), +$1.75 to $29.57, reported
fourth-quarter net income of 93 cents a share, 3 cents above First
Call estimates.

Stewart & Stevenson Services (NYSE-SVC), -$3.21 to $11.63, said it
expects to post fourth-quarter net income from continuing operations
of 7 to 11 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by First Call expected 26
cents. Revenues were lower than expected in all business segments with
the exception of Tactical Vehicle Systems.

Electro Scientific Industries (NASDAQ-ESIO), -$0.94 to $17.05, said it
expects to post a third-quarter net loss of 4 to 6 cents a share,
excluding charges. Analysts surveyed by First Call expected a 4-cent
per share profit.

Merisel (NASDAQ-MSEL), +$0.70 to $2.95, reported fourth-quarter net
income of 59 cents a share, excluding a 2-cent benefit from
discontinued operations, and said it is continuing to meet Nasdaq
listing requirements.

Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (NYSE-LH), +$2.32 to $26.78,
reported fourth-quarter net income of 36 cents a share, matching First
Call's consensus estimate.

Copart (NASDAQ-CPRT), -$2.28 to $7.27, reported second-quarter net
income of 15 cents a share, a penny below First Call's consensus
estimate. The vehicle salvage company lowered its outlook for earnings
for the remainder of the fiscal year, now seeing third-quarter net
income of 15-16 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by First Call
expected 20 cents.

Palomar Medical Technologies (NASDAQ-PMTI), +$0.60 to $2.76, signed an
agreement with Gillette (NYSE-G) to complete development and
potentially commerecialize a home-use, light-based hair removal device
for women.

S&P reiterated a "sell" ranking on Reuters (NASDAQ-RTRSY), -$0.36 to
$12.94.

(UPI) Carnival (NYSE-CCL), -$0.29 to $23.24, said Wednesday it was
reducing its prices because bookings haven't met the company's
expectations. Bookings have been equal to those of last year, Carnival
said in its 10-K filing with the SEC. Increases that had been
anticipated did not occur to fill higher capacity.

(MktNews) J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE-JPM), unchanged at $22.50, fired
Mino Capossela, their equity chief, amid the continued slump in its
equity business. Capossela, a former Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE-GS)
partner, was hired a year ago to run JPM's cash equities business in
North America.

(MktNews) Playboy Enterprises (NYSE-PLA), -$0.36 to $9.04, warned that
its entertainment division will see a fall in operating profit in
2003.

Lucent Technologies (NYSE-LU), -$0.02 to $1.77, said on Wednesday it
was sticking by its projection of returning to profitability this
fiscal year.

MSC.Software (NYSE-MNS), +$1.52 to $8.85, reported fourth-quarter net
income of 8 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by First Call had
expected 5 cents. The company said it was comfortable with first
quarter and fiscal 2003 consensus revenue and earnings estimates.

Barr Laboratories (NYSE-BRL), +$1.13 to $77.21, declared a 3-for-2
stock split for shareholders of record February 28.

ITXC Copr. (NASDAQ-ITXC), -$0.39 to $2.26, lost 24 cents a share in
the fourth quarter, excluding previously announced charges. Analysts
surveyed by First Call expected a net loss of 19 cents.

(AP) Deutsche Telekom (NYSE-DT), -$1.15 to $12.60, said it will sell
2.3 billion euros (US$2.5 billion) of mandatory convertible bonds.

(AP) Disney (NYSE-DIS), -$0.45 to $16.85, announced a hiring freeze at
the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. The Orlando resort employs
53,500 people, including seasonal workers. The freeze does not apply
to seasonal employees.

(AP) Altria Group (NYSE-MO), -$0.49 to $37.49, said its overseas
tobacco unit, Philip Morris International, expects earnings to grow
10% this year, and shipments to increase 4%. -- edited by Stewart
Winograd

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