Earnings, Jobless Claims Derail Rally

Disappointing earnings reports and a surge in weekly jobless claims sent stocks lower on Thursday.

The Nasdaq lost 8 to 1457, the S&P 500 declined 7 to 911, and the Dow fell 75 to 8440. Volume declined to 1.5 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.65 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 19-13 on the NYSE, and 17-13 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 68% on the NYSE, and 57% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 131-22 on the NYSE, and 145-29 on the Nasdaq.

After the close, Amazon surged near a 52-week high (28.04) after beating estimates and raising guidance. Western Digital , Sina.com and Digital Insight beat estimates, VeriSign and NetIQ met estimates, and Emulex and Openwave guided lower.

During the day, Overture plunged 30% on dismal results.

SBC gained 3.3% on better than expected earnings. That helped out Verizon , which gained despite adverse rulings by the FCC and a judge who said the company must reveal the names of customers who may have illegally downloaded copyrighted music.

Microsoft slipped 1% as it formally unveiled Windows Server 2003.

Lucent fell 3.5% on the resignation of COO Bob Holder.

Digital River , Intersil , Veritas , Microchip and Micromuse surged on their earnings reports.

eResearch , Symantec and Siebel rose on their results, while Qualcomm and KLA-Tencor declined on theirs.

AOL , off 1.4%, will offer wireless IM.

Market Commentary: For our free daily market commentary and technical analysis, please visit the InternetStockReport.com home page at:

http://www.InternetStockReport.com.