Wall Street should get a better sense this week of just how much Asia's financial turmoil has dented US profits as the first quarter earnings reporting season cranks into a higher gear.

Wall Street breathed a sigh of relief on Friday after Chrysler Internet company Yahoo! posted better-than-expected earnings. The Dow closed up 103.38 points at 8994.86, ending a week where it closed above 9000 for the first time after a stunning 14 per cent leap in just three months.

Investors had paused mid-week after electronics giant Motorola not only reported expected weaker earnings, but more worryingly, warned that the weakness would spill over into the second quarter.

Investors are seeking reassurance that the first quarter profit shortfall is just a one-off and not the harbinger of a prolonged slowdown.

First-quarter earnings for the nation's biggest companies, those in the Standard and Poor's 500 stock index, are expected to be flat compared with the same quarter last year. This compares with growth of 8.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of 1997, and 11 per cent for last year overall.

Intel and Compaq have both warned that earnings may disappoint because of Asia's slowdown and fierce price competition. Wall Street expects Intel to earn 72 cents per share, and Compaq 1 cent per share. Analysts often overtrim earnings estimates so there is a consistently positive bias in profits each quarter. "The key thing people have missed is that the weakness is concentrated in parts of technology and oil, which is not a full-blown general weakness," Mr Thomas Doerflinger, a strategist at PaineWebber, said.