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TELECOM STOCKS
Prices leap on strong factory report
By Jeffry Bartash, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 11:33 AM ET Jan. 2, 2004

WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) - Telecommunications stocks advanced smartly in Friday action, shored up by a strong burst of growth in U.S. factories during December.
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Earlier, the Institute for Supply Management reported that factory activity in the U.S. grew for the sixth straight month and at a faster pace than in November. The ISM index had been expected to decline instead. See full story.
The good news propelled the American Stock Exchange's Networking Index 2.4 percent higher.
Twelve of the 15 component stocks advanced, with Lucent Technologies (LU: news, chart, profile) and Juniper Networks (JNPR: news, chart, profile) both ripping off 5 percent gains.
The more broadly based Nasdaq Telecommunications Index climbed a lesser 1.4 percent.
Seventeen of the 20 largest stocks rose, led by Ericsson (ERICY: news, chart, profile) and JDS Uniphase (JDSU: news, chart, profile). The pair both added more than 3 percent in value.
In the phone sector, eight of the 13 stocks in the Standard & Poor's Communications Services Index headed higher. Only AT&T (T: news, chart, profile) posted a sizable advancer, however.
The stock jumped 3.3 percent, at $20.97, after USA Today reported that the company has been raising phone rates over the past few months.

Jeffry Bartash is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com in Washington.