Traders Sell On Election News

By Paul Shread | December 13, 2000
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Blue chips rose after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling handed the presidential election to Texas Gov. George W. Bush, but Internet and technology stocks dropped for a second straight day.

The ISDEX slipped 10 to 491, and the Nasdaq lost 61 to 2870. The S&P 500 declined 2 to 1368, but the Dow climbed 58 to 10,826. Volume rose to 543 million shares on the NYSE and 1 billion on the Nasdaq. Breadth was even on the NYSE, but decliners led 20 to 15 on the Nasdaq. For earnings reports, visit our earnings calendar and reported earnings. For after hours quotes and news, visit our after hours trading site.

Engage and Razorfish led all Internet stocks tracked by internet.com lower. Engage fell 11/16 to 1 9/32 after missing earnings estimates by 3 cents with a 26-cent loss, and said it expects to reduce 2001 guidance. Razorfish, off 1 1/4 to 1 27/32, issued an earnings warning, the latest of the embattled Internet consultants to warn.

NaviSite , off 1 7/32 to 4 3/32, beat loss estimates but lowered forward guidance.

Net2Phone surged 2 1/8 to 11 7/8 after beating estimates by a nicel with a 25-cent loss.

iBasis rose 9/16 to 7 1/4 after announcing the acquisition of Speech Application Service Provider PriceInteractive for 10.1 million shares and $50 million in cash.

Short sellers continued to get squeezed in the Linux space. Red Hat rose 1 25/64 to 9 13/16, and VA Linux climbed 2 7/8 to 13 7/8.

Digital Island added 5/32 to 6 11/16 on an alliance with Compaq.

InfoSpace tacked on 3/4 to 12 1/4 after affirming previous earnings guidance.

Oplink Communications surged 3 1/4 to 23 1/2 on a deal with Corning .

Some technical comments on the market: Note: We are now including charts in the technical market commentary. If you can't get the charts via the e-mail newsletter version, try this link: http://www.afterhourstrading.com/column.html

The Nasdaq 100 breached the neckline of its inverted head-and-shoulders bottom today. That's not a great sign, but so far no major damage has been done. However, the index began to fill the first of two gaps formed during the recent advance, and also may have broken out of a bearish rising wedge, so we could be headed for a retest of the lows. Given all the positives in the Nasdaq 100 over the last couple of weeks, we would expect the lows to hold, and perhaps a higher low to form; 2554 would fill both gaps. A close back above 2940 would be a plus. Oracle's earnings are tomorrow night, and they haven't been well-received since April.

The ISDEX is so far holding the neckline of its inverted head-and-shoulders pattern. If it can hold, the index has minimum upside potential to 620.

The S&P 500 appears to have broken out of a rising wedge, setting up a possible retest of 1300. The 1325-1340 range could provide support, and a close above 1380 would be a plus.

The Dow still looks good, and may be forming an ascending triangle, with upside potential to about 11,300. A clean break of 10,900 would be a good sign. But again, we do not want to see sector rotation. A strong, broad-based rally would be more in keeping with a major bottom.

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