i2 and Amazon.com gave Net stocks a double-dose of good news after the bell, as both companies preannounced good earnings. The Dow and Nasdaq recovered from triple-digit losses during the day to close only modestly lower.
The ISDEX http://www.wsrn.com/apps/ISDEX/ fell 5 to 318 after re-testing 300 during the day, and the Nasdaq slipped 11 to 2396 after holding 2300 support. The S&P 500 declined 2 to 1295, and the Dow lost 40 to 10,621. Volume dropped to 1.1 billion shares on the NYSE and 1.84 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by 16 to 13 on the NYSE, but decliners led by 22 to 16 on the Nasdaq. For earnings reports, visit our earnings calendar at http://www.wsrn.com/apps/earnings/internet.xpl and reported earnings at http://www.wsrn.com/apps/earnings/ireported.xpl. For after hours quotes and news, visit our after hours trading site at http://www.afterhourstrading.com.
B2B leader i2 Technologies preannounced better than expected revenues after the bell and soared 6 to 46 in after hours trading, 10 points off its intraday low. Amazon.com
announced that revenues would exceed $960 million, within the $950 million-$1.05 billion range expected by analysts. Amazon rose 1/4 to 15 1/4 after hours.
During the day, Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodget cut his estimates for 2001 online advertising from $9 billion to $8 billion, but said he still favors America Online , off 1.26 to 40.30, DoubleClick
, down 1/4 to 9 3/4, and Yahoo
, off 1 5/16 to 27 3/16, which reports earnings Wednesday. For the first time, Yahoo’s whisper number (12 cents) is lower than the official estimate (13 cents).
Investors cheered the $1 billion acquisition of privately held ServerWorks by Broadcom , which rose 6 3/4 to 83 3/4.
VerticalNet dropped 1 5/16 to 4 after CEO Joe Galli left to head Newell Rubbermaid
after just five months on the job.
Corning rose 2 11/16 to 52 13/16 on a New York Times report that said the company’s earnings climbed 70% last year on revenues of greater than $7 billion.
Check Point Software lost 6 1/8 to 110 5/16 on a Robinson Humphrey downgrade. The firm also downgraded Internet Security Systems
, which fell 12 3/16 to 48 1/2.
Ameritrade fell 11/32 to 8 1/2 on an earnings warning. E*Trade
slipped 1/8 to 9 9/16.
Mercury Interactive dropped 5 11/16 to 61 3/8 despite bullish comments from Prudential Securities.
1-800-Flowers.com added 3/16 to 5 after pre-announcing better-than-expected earnings.
Versata plummeted 4 9/16 to 3 13/16 on an earnings warning. Other companies warning include New Era Of Networks
, down 2 7/32 to 3 9/32, and Accelerated Networks
, off 5/16 to 1 3/4.
RealNetworks added 17/32 to 7 9/16 on an alliance with Texas Instruments
. Datalink.net
, up 3/8 to 2 3/4, won a contract with eBay
.
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We returned to the level where the Fed cut interest rates, at 2300 on the Nasdaq, 1280 on the S&P 500, and 10,600 on the Dow, and then reversed, forming potential bull
ish reversal patterns. If Mr. Greenspan and Company put a bottom under the market last week, that was the level to hold. Some history to consider, courtesy of Ned Davis Research. The Fed has embarked on an easing cycle 21 times since the Federal Reserve system was founded in 1913. On 17 of those 21 occasions, the first rate cut marked a bottom. The second cut resulted in a bottom on three of the remaining four occasions, and even on the fourth, November 1929, the market rallied until April 1930 before dropping until 1932, when the Fed finally cut rates again. The average one-year gain after the 21 initial cuts was 20% in the Dow; after two cuts, the average one-year gain was 28%. A pretty compelling historical picture that does not favor the bears here.
The Nasdaq has declined for three straight days, but volume has declined each day, and the sellers still haven’t eclipsed last Wednesday’s big record-volume up day. Bear market bottoms have been described as feeling like 100 people trying to get through a doorway at the same time, and last Wednesday sure felt that way to us. Furthermore, the Nasdaq held its 1990 logarithmic trendline today, a level Mr. Greenspan has defended for the second time. As we said at midday, the bears didn’t have the volume to send the Nasdaq back below that line.
A look at the intraday charts seems to indicate that the major indexes may be trying to form new uptrends here:
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