Techs, Nets Take A Breather
Blue chip issues rose on Tuesday as technology and Internet shares took a breather. Traders awaited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could decide the outcome of the presidential election.
The ISDEX
In another sign that technology and Internet stocks may have found some sort of bottom, DoubleClick
It was a day of rumors in the market, the wildest of which was that Disney
Web hosting stocks were strong on a Wall Street Journal Interactive report that Sprint
Linux stocks were strong on news of a major deployment by IBM
Interactive Pictures
InfoSpace
Ariba
Covad
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 retraced to yesterday's breakout point of 2895 (first chart), although it could still go a little lower before hitting the descending neckline of its inverted head-and-shoulders bottom. If it can hold here, the index has minimum upside potential to 3350. It is a significant reversal pattern, much stronger than the index's bottom in May. However, we should also note that the pattern formed off the Nasdaq 100's low could be a rising wedge (second chart), setting up a potential retest of the lows. An odd way to form a bottom; hopefully the index will rally from here.
slipped 6 to 506, and the Nasdaq lost 43 to 2971. The S&P 500 declined 4 to 1375, and the Dow climbed 82 to 10,808. Volume slipped to 496 million shares on the NYSE and 911 million on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by 14 to 11 on the NYSE and 21 to 14 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.
rose 2 1/16 to 14 despite warning that it will lose 3 cents in the quarter, a nickel below estimates.
may make a play for Yahoo
, up 2 7/8 to 36 3/4. At its peak, Yahoo's market cap was three times higher than Disney's.
is interested in making an acquisition in the space. Possible targets include Digital Island
, up 1 9/16 to 6 15/16, PSINet
, up 5/8 to 1 23/32, and Data Return
, which gained 1 7/16 to 7 5/8.
. Red Hat
gained 1 7/16 to 8 5/8, and VA Linux
climbed 1 11/32 to 10 3/4.
added 7/16 to 1 13/16 on an alliance with IBM.
rose 3/16 to 11/38 after announcing that Lucent
will market its products worldwide. Lucent itself was rumored to be an acquisition target of either Nokia
or Nortel
.
dropped 7 1/4 to 79 5/8, back below 83 1/2 resistance, on a Lehman Brothers downgrade to Neutral, saying the company's $25 billion market cap overstates its growth prospects. Commerce One
lost 2 to 41 3/4 despite a Lehman Outperform rating.
fell 7/16 to 2 5/8 despite guiding 2001 loss estimates lower.