Baidu Posts Strong Growth

Baidu.com , the Chinese search provider that made a big splash in its Wall Street debut earlier this month, reported sales that nearly tripled in its first quarter as a publicly traded company.

Baidu’s second-quarter revenues soared 189% to $8.4 million, growing 53% sequentially from the first quarter. The company’s net income was $1.5 million for the quarter, or 5 cents a share, up more than 600% from the year-ago period. But with sequential revenue growth expected to slow to 15-19% next quarter, investors decided the company’s small sales and earnings made its $2.5 billion stock valuation a little pricey, and Baidu closed down 5% Wednesday.

The broader market fell on a steep drop in durable orders and a new high for oil prices.

The Nasdaq lost 8 to 2128, the S&P fell 8 to 1209, and the Dow skidded 84 to 10,434. Volume rose to 1.97 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.77 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 18-14 on the NYSE, and 16-13 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 61% on the NYSE, and 60% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 90-28 on the NYSE, and 95-43 on the Nasdaq.

RF Micro gained 8% on a Lehman Brothers upgrade.

Wind River and SeaChange tumbled 15-16% on their results.

Google rose 1% on IM plans.