Internet stocks find running room partly riding a psychological milestone as the Dow closes past 10,000. Future-oriented investors should note that another index also posted record close value, ISDEX ends the trading session at a new high itself–553.73, up 17.25 points. Today’s snapshot:
|
29-Mar-99 |
point change |
% change |
ISDEX |
553.73 |
17.25 |
3.22% |
NASDAQ |
2,492.84 |
73.67 |
3.05% |
DJIA |
10,009.78 |
187.54 |
1.91% |
Priceline.com sets its IPO of 10 million shares at $16 each, past the $12-$14 range. The $160 million offer would put Priceline, who’s spokesman is William Shatner, in Star Trek-like hyperdrive for gross proceeds raised. Only the ISPs IPOs this year have raised that level of cash on debut.
I like Priceline’s name it model but where the rubber meets the road the items available to name prices on aren’t ready for prime-time or even Home Shopping Network. At some juncture quality and certainty (will you get the airline seat you priced on when you get to the airport?) matter. On this one I hang a big “under construction” on its business model.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) takes steps to be a ‘complete’ Web etailer by adding auctions. The move sends AMZN shares up 7% to $149.625, while online auctioneers drop a few percentage points as the market digests Amazon’s emerging ‘Gozilla in the mist’ status. Amazon’s real threats to me are AOL, Yahoo, @Home/Excite. They will almost certainly clash at the fork in the road ahead.
Concentric Network (NASDAQ:CNCX) announces a 2-for-1 stock split that attracts the split-happy brigade to buy in the “twofer” opportunity for the ISPs stock, sending shares up near 20% to $80.3125 per share. Right or wrong many investors see splits as a way to get two shares for the price of one and rely on the stock to rise to pre-split levels. with many Internet shares that’s proven t be true so far.