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Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Monday, December 11, 2000

Nasdaq 100 index reshuffles members

NEW YORK -- BEA Systems Inc. and Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. are among stocks that will join the Nasdaq 100 index on Dec. 18, the Nasdaq Stock Market said today.

The other stocks to be added to the index when the market opens that day are: Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc., Exodus Communications Inc., Flextronics International Ltd., Rational Software Corp., Human Genome Sciences Inc., Mercury Interactive Corp., IDEC Pharmaceuticals Corp., Inktomi Corp., Abgenix Inc., and TMP Worldwide Inc.

Shares of each of the companies will be included in the Nasdaq 100 Index Tracking Stock, a security that trades on the American Stock Exchange and invests in the companies in the index.

The following companies will be removed from the Nasdaq 100: Adaptec Inc., American Power Conversion Corp., Apollo Group Inc., Dollar Tree Stores Inc., Herman Miller Inc., Legato Systems Inc., Network Associates Inc., Northwest Airlines Corp., PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., Quintiles Transnational Corp., Sigma-Aldrich Corp., and Synopsys Inc.

The Nasdaq adjusts the index's membership four times a year so it continues to contain the 100 largest non-financial Nasdaq companies. Stocks going into the Nasdaq 100 are likely to rise while those being removed may fall because managers of funds that seek to mimic the index's performance will have to adjust their holdings. The Nasdaq 100 Index tracking stock, for example, has about $24 billion in assets.

Lowe's warns profits will miss forecasts

WILKESBORO,N.C. -- Lowe's Cos., the second-largest U.S. home-improvement chain, said profit in its fiscal fourth quarter and through the next fiscal year will miss forecasts as a slowing economy hurt sales of paint, tools and other fix-up items.

Lowe's expects earnings of 40 cents to 42 cents a share in the quarter ending Feb. 2, according to a press release distributed by PR Newswire. Analysts' average estimate was 46 cents, according to First Call/ Thomson Financial.