Another Tech Drubbing

May 3, 2002

Technology stocks had another rough day on Thursday, as former leaders Oracle and Sun Microsystems continued to set new lows in heavy volume.

The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ fell 5 to 123, and the Nasdaq lost 32 to 1644. The S&P 500 slipped 1 to 1084, and the Dow gained 32 to 10,091. Volume declined to 1.36 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.05 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 18 to 13 on the NYSE, but decliners led by a few issues on the Nasdaq.

After the close, Avant beat estimates, but Sapient missed.

During the day, Priceline.com plunged 22% after missing revenue estimates.

Sun Microsystems and Oracle continued to hit new 52-week lows in extremely heavy volume.

Wind River Systems plunged 28% on a warning.

Hewlett-Packard announced that it will change its ticker symbol to “HPQ” on May 6, after the company’s merger with Compaq closes.

Some technical comments on the market: Note: To see the charts in the text email newsletter, click on the internetstockreport.com story link at the top of the newsletter.

The Nasdaq (first chart below) continues to be pinned between 1696 resistance and 1640 support. 1619-1627 is good-looking support below 1640, and 1725-1734 is the next resistance above 1696. The Nasdaq 100 (second chart) is just above the critical 1200 level; lower than that, and a retest of the September 1089-1100 lows is underway. Today saw extremely heavy volume in former leaders like Oracle and Sun ; are they near capitulation? The Dow (third chart) is perched right below critical 10,100 resistance; if the blue chips take that out, they could run. 10,000 is first support, and then 9928 and 9800. The S&P 500 and 100 (fourth and fifth charts) remain well below their critical resistance levels of 1100 and 547, respectively. 1074, 1064 and 1054 are support on the S&P, and if that goes, a trip to 1020 or so looks possible. Between unemployment numbers and the ISM services report, tomorrow should be yet another interesting day, and the Fed meets on Tuesday while Cisco reports after the close that same day.