Stocks began the week mixed, as traders digested Friday’s strong gains fueled by a soft jobs report.
As of noon, the Dow was down 18 and the S&P 500 down 9, while the Nasdaq gained 3 points. Volume
was light, with 388 million shares changing hands on the Big Board and 741 million on the Nasdaq.
Declining issues led advancing ones 15 to 11 on the NYSE, while advancers led 19 to 17 on the
Nasdaq. The ISDEX was virtually unchanged at 761.50. The economic calendar for the week is light,
with the only major report Friday’s Producer Price Index, expected to show a 0.3% increase in May
after a similar decline in April.
Ariba broke through its 50 and
200 day moving averages, up 7 7/8 to 78 3/8, after announcing a pact with
VeriSign and American Express
to
deliver the first integrated card payment processing utility for online business-to-business
transactions. Commerce One
gained 3 15/16 to 54 1/4.
Amazon.com declined 3 3/8 to 54 1/2 after
an article in Barron’s said the company could be hurt if forced to change its accounting
practices.
Performance software stocks were strong, led by Red Hat
, up 24% to $23.80. Liberate Technologies
gained 14% to $30.50 and Versata
, 14% to $31 1/8.
MarketWatch and NBC Internet
led content stocks higher, up 9%
and 11%, respectively. Yahoo continued its
recent run, up 3 7/16 to 137 15/16.
Internet Capital Group led
financial shares higher, up 4 9/16 to 41 1/8.