The markets headed in separate directions today, with blue chips climbing
into positive territory, sending the NYSE inching 7.54 to 10,777.28.
Technology stocks were limping toward the weekend worse for the wear, as
the Nasdaq tumbled 106.25 to 3,538.71, while the ISDEX followed suit, down
4.05%.
Investors were busy yo-yoing the Net merger deal between Lycos
and Terra Networks
, sending
Lycos behind the woodshed yesterday, before pushing shares higher today.
The U.S. portal added 4-23/32 to 62-5/16 by mid-afternoon after delivering
better-than-expected Q3 results of $0.07 per share, two cents ahead of
consensus estimates.
Shares of Earthlink shed 1-11/16 to 19-3/4 on
the heels of news that the ISP expects to post higher-than-anticipated
revenue losses this year, compared with year-ago same-period revenue numbers.
The IPO patch showed some signs of life in Web offerings, as shares of
newcomer iBeam edged out of the gate with a 4
point gain to $14. The broadband start-up has been scrambling to repair its
image ever since founder William Michael Bowles’ arrest last year for
soliciting sex with a 13-year-old boy he’d met online.
Corel shares continued to free-fall 1-3/16 to
4-3/16, over the Linux company’s nixed merger deal with Inprise
that took badly needed cash off the table. Rumors are
circling around Corel, that the ailing company may have trouble keeping up
with payroll in the next couple weeks.
Shares of Sina.com were on the upside today,
soaring 11-7/8 to 50-1/2, on reports that the Hong Kong-based Web portal
will serve its content to telecomm giants China Unicom and China
Telecom .
Bellwether Web stocks were softer across the board, with media giant
Yahoo! sagging 5-13/16 to 132. Online auctioneer
eBay fell 4-1/16 to 124-1/16, while ISP
heavyweight America Online eased 1-3/8 to 55-3/8.
B2Bs looked a little lighter in the wallet, as shares of ICGE pulled back 2-13/16 to 31-1/4, after a brief run-up on news of
Prince Alwaleed’s multimillion dollar investment in the beaten-down
incubator. PurchasePro stumbled 1-1/8 to
23-9/16, while CommerceOne sank 3-1/16 to 43-1/8.
