Internet stocks never recovered from a selloff which began early in the day Tuesday and the situation got worse as the day progressed with few buyers coming into halt price declines.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 122.40 to 10,532.27, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 72.88 to 2,380.78 and internet.com’s Internet Stock Index plunged 35.82, or 7.02 percent, to 474.73.
Investors even gave the day’s anticipated IPO a cool reception. barnesandnoble.com (BNBN), the online component of bookseller Barnes and Noble, rose only 4-15/16 to 22-15/16. While it was a solid gain, the performance fell short of other recent Internet entrants. The company sold 25 million shares at $18 Monday, raising $421.6 million.
One of the sector’s biggest gainers was Speedus.com Inc., a provider of Local Multipoint Distribution Service Internet access in the New York area. The company’s shares rocketed 2-7/8 to 6-5/8 on news that it licensed technology from Cisco Systems Inc. to offer full-motion, full-screen video.
After being as high as 105-3/4, Lycos Inc. (LCOS) lost all its gains and more to close off 1-1/4 to 96-1/2. Investors bid up the stock earlier in the day on news it will be added to the Nasdaq 100 on Friday.
Online job site CareerBuilder Inc. (CBDR) gained 7/16 to 13-1/16 after reaching 15-7/8 early in the session. Microsoft announced plans to invest $17.8 million in the company and the two will team up on a job listings service that will be launched throughout Microsoft’s Web network.
Many leading Internet issues were bruised Monday even though none issued major news. Priceline.com Inc. (PCLN) plunged 21-11/32 to 104, Inktomi Corp. lost 17-5/16 to 86 after reaching 102 earlier in the day and CNET Inc. (CNET) gave back 17-9/16 to close at 97-1/2, substantially off its intraday high of 115.
Online auctioneer eBay Inc. (EBAY) lost 19-5/16 to 163-15/16. The company made an unspecified investment in iShip.com, which provides shipping services for electronic commerce companies.
Recent IPO Healtheon Corp. (HLTH) continued its tumble, falling another 24 to 67. Shares climbed as high as 126-3/16 just before last week’s merger with WebMD Inc.
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