Nasdaq Climbs 49.33 to 4,897.17
WILLOW BAY, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, a less than inspiring rebound after the Dow's worst day in years. We'll look at where main street investors can find safety in the storm.</s>STUART VARNEY, CNN ANCHOR: From panic buying to manic selling in the oil pits, but will a welcome retreat in prices really last?</s>BAY: Your medical history, online and vulnerable to prying eyes. Are your health care secrets revealed when you go on the Web? Our special series continues.</s>VARNEY: And who wants to be a jillionaire? The oracle of Omaha.</s>WARREN BUFFETT, CHAIRMAN, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY: I'm ready. I'll take "Brady Bunch" trivia for 200.</s>VARNEY: But Warren Buffett needs a lifeline to become a quiz show sensation.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is THE MONEYLINE NEWS HOUR. Reporting tonight from New York, Willow Bay and Stuart Varney.</s>VARNEY: Good evening, everyone. Stocks today gained across the board after yesterday's ferocious sell-off.</s>BAY: But the gains were hardly enough to dispel the anxiety on Wall Street. As one money manager put it, investors spent the day sifting through the rubble of yesterday's carnage in search of bargains. That, along with an encouraging pull-back in oil prices sent the Dow up nearly 125 points. But the enthusiasm faded by the closing bell, the index ending up just 60. For the Nasdaq, it was the reverse, the index taking a triple-digit dive before climbing back to close up nearly 50. Rhonda Schaffler has more on a tepid recovery for stocks.</s>RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Investors tested the waters with limited buying today on the heels of yesterday's bone-jarring tumble. Surprisingly, old-economy stocks came out ahead: Alcoa, International Paper, Kodak, and Caterpillar were each up on the day. This year's beaten down drug sector was slightly resurrected, helped by some upbeat brokerage comments: Merck rose almost 3, Johnson & Johnson gained 4, Warner-Lambert and American Home Products also ended higher. But there was no rebound for Procter & Gamble shares, which shed another $3, and was the most actively traded stock for a second day.</s>AL GOLDMAN, AG EDWARDS: It's a very selective market, and it has been for about two years now. In fact, we have more losers than winners this year, but it's interesting, those that are up are up more than those that are down are down. So you've been rewarded if you've been in the right stocks.</s>SCHAFFLER: Rewards, however, didn't come to the oil sector today, talk that OPEC and non-OPEC oil producing nations have agreed to increase production sent the price of crude tumbling almost 9 percent to just over $31 a barrel. Oil stocks responded with a late session sell-off: Schlumberger lost more than 5, TransOcean Offshore fell better than 5 1/2, Texaco and Halliburton were also lower. The Nasdaq had its share of volatility today. The big movers, however, were to the downside. Biotech stocks lost almost 5.5 percent, semiconductors tumbled about 2 percent. Some strategists expect the market's divergence to continue.</s>ROBERT STOVALL, PRUDENTIAL SECURITIES: The market now is in sort of a double orbit. I mean, you've got the new-age stocks swirling around, up higher, looks like the fundamentals don't matter too much, just the concept or the thesis, and then the standard stocks are very susceptible to downturns on bad news or even flat news.</s>SCHAFFLER: Fear of the Fed, as one expert puts it, is gripping the market and keeping traders jittery. A quarter point hike is expected and discounted for later this month. But investors are getting nervous that a May hike could slow the economy down too much, legitimizing today's flight to quality into the old-economy stocks -- Willow.</s>BAY: Rhonda Schaffler reporting from the big board.</s>VARNEY: For the Dow, today's session was indeed a letdown for investors hoping for a decisive rebound. For the Nasdaq, today's session was marked by some pretty wild swings. Charles Molineaux has more now from the Nasdaq market site -- Charles.</s>CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, Stuart, investors in technology snapped right back into their familiar pattern of buying on the dips and boosted the Nasdaq Composite index out of a steep dive. The Nasdaq started the day off with that rally, then sold off 200 points from its high, then bounced back for a 49-point gain at the close. Chalk this one up to the crossover affect again. Strategists say investors once more took their cues from the old- economy stocks of the Dow as they sank, then recovered, unleashing again the appetite for technology names. Computer stocks led this market higher with a 1.7 percent rally thanks to strong gains by the likes of Sun Microsystems, and Oracle, as well as Microsoft, Dell, and a raft of Internet companies which regained their footing and rose 2 percent. E-tailers like eBay gained ground, it was up 13 percent. Infrastructure name Inktomi picked up, as did PSI Net. Chip stocks were the one sector that resisted yesterday's sell- off. Today, they missed out on the rally and fell 1.7 percent. Chip big-cap Intel was down even after it rolled out its new one gigahertz Pentium III chip. Novell sank, as did Lattice Semiconductor. The high-flying biotechnology stocks were pummeled once again, down almost 1 1/2 percent. Nextel Therapeutics needed therapy, it fell 18 percent, so did Genron Pharmaceuticals. A good idea of this volatility of these technology stocks certainly comes out over the past couple of sessions between yesterday's high of over 5,000 and today's low, the Nasdaq composite covered a range of 5 percent. Reporting live from the Nasdaq market site, Charles Molineaux for</s>CNN. BAY: As the Dow industrials hover near bear market territory, the bluest of the blue chips are already there and it's a who's who of the old economy. Caterpillar down 47 percent from its 52-week high. McDonald's and DuPont both down 38 percent. Merck is off 35 percent. And Coca-Cola is down 33. But even some so-called new economy names are under water on Wall Street. Amazon.com has slid 44 percent from its high. America Online has lost 43 percent, under pressure since it announced plans to merge with the parent of this network, Time Warner. Yahoo! down almost 30 percent. EBay off more than 20. And CMGI down 15 percent.</s>VARNEY: Well, even the stalwart stocks on the Dow, like G.E., IBM, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, they're suffering double-digit percent declines this year. You might think that would -- that, that would send small investors flocking to their local brokerage to sell stocks. Not so. As Ceci Rodgers reports, that's not exactly what's happening.</s>CECI RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These investors lined-up at the Charles Schwab office on Chicago's Magnificent Mile, not to cash out or even switch mutual funds, but to add to their accounts or open new ones.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do have some friends that are some big investors, at my level big investors, and they are real excited about the way things are going and they have a lot of ideas, so, you know, I kind of want to get involved myself.</s>RODGERS: Tax season is adding to the excitement. The average federal refund is up 8 percent this year. And if inflows are any indication, people are investing some of that money in mutual funds. Nearly $40 billion poured into stock funds in January. That's a record. And analysts say inflows have nearly kept pace in February and early March.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're setting records in history, you know, in terms of the growth, so I figure I might as well jump into it and see what happens.</s>RODGERS: Taking the plunge the day after the Dow industrials' 374 point drop. Since the beginning of the year, the Dow has lost 14 percent of its value. At the same time, high-tech stocks and the Nasdaq have surged to all-time highs. An investor couldn't be blamed for being confused, but these investors appear anything but.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think a lot of stocks are overvalued, and I really expected it, even though our portfolio is down in the six figures. But it is not that bad. It is going to come back. Stocks always come back -- always.</s>RODGERS (on camera): So far, small investors are keeping their cool amid the stock markets' gyrations. If they're worried about anything, it's that they'll miss out on the market's next big move to the upside. Ceci Rodgers, CNN Financial News, Chicago.</s>BAY: Next on MONEYLINE, struggling to jump on the B-to-B bandwagon.</s>VARNEY: Question: Will IBM's new alliance jump-start the company's e-commerce strategy? That story is next.</s>BAY: And later, the campaign ads that infuriated John McCain. Who's the money man behind them? You'll meet him tonight on MONEYLINE.