Accenture Runs Into Congress

Accenture’s $10 billion Homeland Security contract could be in trouble.

The House Appropriations Committee voted 35-16 Wednesday to deny the huge federal IT contract to Accenture because the company is headquartered in Bermuda. Accenture won the contract over rivals Lockheed Martin and Computer Sciences .

The spending bill still has to go through both houses of Congress and be signed by the president, but it’s not a promising start for Accenture. And it just might be the start of a move against companies that move their headquarters offshore.

Stocks fell Wednesday on fear of rising interest rates.

The Nasdaq lost 32 to 1990, the S&P 500 dropped 10 to 1131, and the Dow fell 64 to 10,368. Volume rose to 1.27 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.53 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 24-8 on the NYSE, and 22-8 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 78% on the NYSE, and 82% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 89-18 on the NYSE, and 64-30 on the Nasdaq.

After the close, Net2Phone beat estimates.

During the day, OmniVision plunged 30% after the company revealed accounting concerns.

AT&T fell and SBC , BellSouth and Verizon rose after the federal government declined to appeal a court ruling that struck down the FCC’s local telephone network access rules.

Remec gained 1% after beating estimates.

Business Objects and Microstrategy fell on a patent dispute ruling.

8X8 gained 6% on a VoIP deal with Level 3 .

Ameritrade lost 7% on a warning.

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