Investors Shake Off Yahoo Warning

Investors shook off a dismal profit outlook from Yahoo to send Internet and technology stocks sharply higher on Thursday.

The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ surged 16 to 375, and the Nasdaq climbed 43 to 2585. The S&P 500 rose 6 to 1319, but the Dow declined 43 to 10,560. Volume declined slightly to 560 million shares on the NYSE, but rose to 1.1 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by 14 to 12 on the NYSE, and 22 to 11 on the Nasdaq. The Producer Price Index for December will be reported tomorrow. For earnings reports, visit our earnings calendar at http://www.wsrn.com/apps/earnings/internet.xpl and reported earnings at http://www.wsrn.com/apps/earnings/ireported.xpl. For after hours quotes and news, visit our after hours trading site at http://www.afterhourstrading.com.

Yahoo fell 4 7/8 to 25 5/8 after meeting earnings estimates of 13 cents a share. Revenues for the quarter came in $4 million light at $311 million. But the company's outlook for the year was what really caught analysts by surprise: Yahoo said full-year earnings will come in at 33-43 cents a share due to economic weakness, well under analysts' 57-cent estimate. The company also guided full-year revenues down to $1.2-$1.3 billion from estimates of $1.4 billion. DoubleClick , off 1 1/16 to 11 3/8, reports earnings tonight.

Ariba , up 3 11/16 to 43 3/4, reports earnings tonight; analysts expect earnings of 2 cents a share. i2 , up 2 1/4 to 50 1/4, continued to rise after a bullish profit forecast, and Commerce One rose 1 5/8 to 23 5/8.

eBay shook off Yahoo's earnings warning to rise 1 to 40 5/16, continuing to gain on a positive presentation by CEO Meg Whitman.

Cisco , off 9/16 to 35 11/16, and Juniper Networks , up 8 to 127 5/16, continued to diverge. Cisco admitted yesterday that the slowdown in capital equipment spending was affecting the company, and Juniper has been stealing market share from Cisco. Juniper reports earnings Tuesday.

Broadcom , a major Cisco and Motorola supplier, rose 6 1/16 to 116 despite anemic profit news from both companies.

Rational Software surged 6 5/8 to 45 3/4 after the company's 20-cent earnings beat estimates by 2 cents. SG Cowen downgraded a host of Internet enabling software stocks on recent weakness in business, including Rational Software, BroadVision , off 3/8 to 14 13/16, Vignette , up 3/4 to 13 1/4, BEA Systems , up 2 to 58 1/4, Serena , down 1 3/8 to 28 3/16, and TIBCO , up 2 7/16 to 42 1/16.

Digital River rose 1 9/16 to 4 11/16 after pre-announcing better than expected results and saying it expects to achieve profitability in the first quarter.

Extended Systems soared 5 to 19 3/8 after pre-announcing better than expected results.

PurchasePro rose 1 1/2 to 17 1/4 on a deal with Honeywell .

Audiohighway.com , halted at 3/8, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

VerticalNet , up 7/8 to 5 1/2, and SierraCities , up 1/32 to 1 11/16, called off their merger due to market conditions.

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