Dow finishes lower on plane crash news
Travel-related stocks are among those to get hit hardest by news of the plane crash just outside New York's John F. Kennedy Airport.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 53.63 at 9,554.3, and the Nasdaq gained 11.65 at 1,840.13. CNET's technology indexes were mixed, with especially strong results from the Semiconductor index.
An American Airlines jet crashed near the airport around 6 a.m. PT in the city's borough of Queens, causing the markets to open sharply lower. Renewed fears of terrorism plagued the markets, but stocks regained ground as the day progressed with no evidence of foul play in the crash.
The technology sector also got a lift from the networking sector. Optical networking company Ciena said Monday that it expects fiscal fourth-quarter earnings to beat analyst estimates, and the company plans to cut its staff by about 10 percent. Ciena will also take a $1.7 billion charge to write down the goodwill on certain assets. Shares were up $1.65 to $18.83 following the news.
Travel-related stocks were among the hardest hit by news of the plane crash, though all recovered slightly from steeper losses earlier in the day. Priceline fell 22 cents, or 5 percent, to $4.28; Travelocity.com lost $1.46, or 9 percent, to $14.10. Expedia.com tumbled $1.26, or 4 percent, to $ 29.96.
Security stocks were the one sector gaining favor on the news. OSI Systems fell 7 cents to $13.45, after gaining 9 percent earlier in the day. Other stocks were still up, though they lost about half of earlier gains. Visionics was up $1.31, or 10 percent, to $14.15; InVision Technology rose $1.05, or 9 percent, to $13.35. Viisage Technology jumped $1.24, or 14 percent, to $10.28.
Among other actively-traded shares, Intel rose 50 cents to $28.38, Oracle rose 2 cents to $15.40, and Microsoft rose 58 cents to $65.79.
AOL Time Warner fell 67 cents to $36.43, Yahoo lost 2 cents to $13.70, and Amazon.com was down 7 cents to $7.05.
Staff and Reuters contributed to this report.