USA Interactive Rolls On

USA Interactive and its subsidiaries Expedia and Hotels.com soared more than 9% each Thursday after blowing past Wall Street estimates.

Some numbers: 71% year-over-year revenue growth at Expedia. 67% year-over-year sales growth at ROOM. And 38% growth at USAI. USAI cautioned that forward growth won’t be as strong, but that was good enough for investors. The company also reaffirmed its commitment to e-commerce in a letter to shareholders.

The broader market initially sold off on higher than expected weekly jobless claims ahead of tomorrow’s monthly unemployment report, and a weaker than expected ISM national manufacturing report. Even better than expected first quarter productivity was viewed as a negative because it could mean fewer jobs, as Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan reminded the market on Wednesday. But stocks rebounded as traders once again bought the dip, and tech stocks even finished the day in positive territory.

The Nasdaq rose 8 to 1472, the S&P 500 slipped less than a point to 916, and the Dow declined 25 to 8454. Volume declined to 1.37 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.46 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 16-15 on the NYSE, and 16-14 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 47% on the NYSE, and 68% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 131-10 on the NYSE, and 154-21 on the Nasdaq.

After the close, priceline surged after beating estimates and announcing a reverse stock split. Genesis Microchip warned and InfoSpace warned, and S1 missed estimates. Cypress raised guidance.

During the day, FindWhat.com plunged 20% after saying that Google’s acquisition of Applied Semantics could hurt results.

Rambus slipped 1% as its FTC trial opened.

Adobe rose 6% after raising guidance, and Macromedia soared 32% on better than expected results.

Applied Materials added 1% after naming a new CEO, former Intel EVP and director of Sales and Marketing Michael Splinter.

Ciena rose 5.5% on a deal with British Telecom.

Newport and Veridian surged on their results, but Akamai and Cray fell on their earnings reports.

IBM climbed 1% as it rolled out more on-demand services.

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