Instant recipe for a bad day on the stock market: enter Alan Greenspan, add nervous investors fearing interest rate hikes, stir in warnings of an economic slowdown. Then sit back and watch big spender Amazon.com lead the Internet sector south.
internet.com’s Internet Stock Index dropped 26.43, or 5.03 percent to 499.02 at midday. The market took Greenspan’s remarks hard, with The Nasdaq Composite slipping 77.32 to 2684.45 and the Dow Jones industrial average falling 33.56 to 10969.22.
On the up side, Internet software company Vignette Corp. (
VIGN)
leapt 5-7/16 to 73 after beating Street estimates by $.03 in its earnings announcements. The company will be offering an additional 3 million shares.
Network Solutions (NSOL), despite producing an earnings report boasting revenue up 132 percent to $47.5 million, fell 5-3/8 to 71-7/8 as investors continued to be wary of the company’s future in a competitive domain registrar system. NSI also announced it will revamp its payment process to prevent cybersquatting.
Onsale (ONSL), which recently merged with Egghead.com, met analysts expectations in its earnings report. Its shares still slipped 3/16 to 17-1/2. Beyond.com, software producer of the “naked man” commercial fame, was down 3-3/4 to 22-5/16, though its earnings report beat Street estimates.
Ariba (ARBA) may have had one of the most successful IPOs of the summer, but its stock dropped 8-11/16 to 112-5/16 when its earnings fell short of analyst estimates. The e-commerce service provider’s losses nearly matched its $11.9 revenue.
Amazon.com (AMZN) continued to take a pummeling today on the Big Board, free-falling 18-7/16 to 107 as investors didn’t take kindly to news of increased spending projections.
Priceline (PCLN), which had reported increased profit and revenue, saw its shares fall 4-21/22 to 83-9/16 after the SEC announced the name-your-price ticket seller filed for a secondary offering. Delta Airlines may sell up to 1.8 million shares in this round.
Sun Microsystems (SUNW) posted record earnings after the bell today, but was also hit by the sector downturn to end 3-1/2 down at 67-3/16.
Sector leaders were all in the red. AOL ((AOL), which posted positive earnings yesterday, still fell 4-7/16 to 110-5/8; Yahoo! (YHOO) was down 6-3/4 to 145-1/8 and eBay (EBAY) slipped 6-5/8 to 108-11/16.
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