Unemployment, profit news drive Dow down

News that the unemployment rate hit a 24-year low in October -- combined with profit warnings from key technology firms -- pushed the Dow Jones industrial average down Friday by 101.92 points to 7581.32 while the NASDAQ was off 21.06 points to 1602.38.

With the notable exception of Intel Corp., which held an analysts' meeting Friday, shares of U.S. semiconductor and chip equipment manufacturers were slammed by fears that financial turmoil in Asian markets would trim U.S. corporate profit and growth prospects, analysts said.

Intel Corp. gained $3.94 per share to $77.44 and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. picked up 75 cents per share to $22.63, but the rest of the segment took a beating.

Texas Instruments Inc. shed $4.68 per share to $112.68. National Semiconductor Corp. lost $1.44 per share to $34.69 while Applied Materials Inc. and KLA-Tencor Corp. lost $1.31 and $3.63 per share, respectively.

"Basically, the analogy is that my colleagues went to the dentist and found out that Intel needs a good cleaning, but not a tooth pulled," said Michael Geran, an analyst at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette. "The stock boost today is a big sigh of relief that things are basically going to be the same as everyone thought at the end of last quarter."

The Labor Department didn't help matters much after announcing the unemployment rate was 4.7 percent, compared with 4.9 percent in September. The economy also created 284,000 non-farm jobs last month, well above estimates.

"The big concern is Asia," said Kenneth Toudouze, an analyst at Principal Financial Securities. "All the chip makers are down except Intel. The fear is if we have weaker growth in Asia, profits will be weaker."

Chip makers and chip equipment makers weren't the only ones that ended the week on a sour note.

America Online Inc., which met analysts' expectations in its third quarter but fell short of the "whisper" number, lost 31 cents per share to $79.06. Amazon.com Inc. dropped $1.94 per share to $54 while Yahoo! Inc. and Excite Inc. lost $3.13 and $1.25 per share, respectively.

PC makers were off, too, as Dell Computer Corp. slid $2.50 per share to $78.50; Compaq Computer Corp. was off $1.56 per share to $63.88, and Gateway 2000 lost 75 cents per share to $28.06.

Western Digital Corp.'s profit warnings also stung technology investors, sending the disk drive maker's stock down $6.38 per share to $23.88. Seagate Technology Inc. also dipped $1.69 per share to $26.13.

Cisco Systems Inc. lost $1.44 per share to $83.25. 3Com Corp. was off $2.94 per share to $38 and Ascend Communications Inc. lost 69 cents per share to $24.13.