Yahoo’s China plans and Cisco’s
forecast were on investors’ minds Wednesday before surging oil price cast a long shadow over all major markets.
The Nasdaq lost 16.38 to 2,158, the S&P was off 2.25 to 1,229, and the Dow shed 21.26 to 10,594. Trading volumes on the Nasdaq and New York Stock exchange were 1.8 billion shares and 2.1 billion shares, respectively.
Some investors were looking for better guidance from Cisco which announced its solid, if unspectacular, financial results after markets closed Tuesday.
In heavy trading Wednesday, shares of the network equipment maker sank $1.34, or nearly 7 percent, to $18.27.
Yahoo, meanwhile, edged up 13 cents to $34.19. Rumblings continued that the search and Internet portal giant is nearing a $1 billion deal to buy a 35 percent stake in Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba. An announcement could come as early as tomorrow, according to some media outlets.
Another company with online assets was also in the news. Time Warner , which owns America Online, was off 30 cents, or less than 2 percent, to $18.24.
Several reports suggested that investor Carl Ichan is trying recruit
shareholders to push the company to unload some of its assets in an effort to boost the share price.
In the chip sector, Transmeta jumped 29 cents, or 27 percent, to $1.35, after announced that it returned to profitability in its second quarter.
Another semiconductor firm, AMD , added 18 cents, just under 1 percent, to $20.60. Intel
was essentially flat on the day, down 2 cents to $26.88.
Search engine leader Google lost $5.89, or 2 percent, to $285.68. And software giant Microsoft
lost 40 cents, or less than 2 percent, to $26.95.
Paul Shread is not writing this week. He will return next week with
technical analysis.