MARKET CLOSE: Tech stocks wilt in rocky trading

Jan. 2, 2002 4:43 p.m. PT

2 min read

Technology stocks faltered again Monday as the Nasdaq composite shed 113 points to 3,981.36. The Dow Jones industrial average shaved off 49 points to close at 10,684.77.

"I think it is a continuation of you report good earnings, your stock goes down," said Barry Hyman, market strategist for Ehrenkrantz, King Nussbaum Inc. "Questions about PC growth have hurt the PC sector. I think the market is also underwhelmed by all these mega deals in the works."

Reports that personal computer sales slowed a bit in the second quarter had a predictable effect on leading vendors as Dell (DELL) shares fell 5 29/32 to 46 15/32 and Gateway (GTW) shed 4 1/4 to 58 5/8. Apple Computer (AAPL) closed off 4 13/16 to 48 3/4 and Compaq (CPQ) closed off 1 to 26 3/4.

Yahoo! (YHOO) shares fell 5 3/4 to 132 9/16 while Amazon.com (AMZN) and eBay (EBAY) dropped 2 3/8 and 3 5/8 a share, respectively. Lycos (LCOS) dropped 1 15/16 to 56 7/8 and America Online (AOL) closed down 1 13/16 to 55 13/16.

EMusic (Nasdaq: EMUS) soared after the company announced a music subscription service. Its shares closed up 19/32 to 2 13/32. MP3.com (Nasdaq: MPPP), which reports earnings after the bell, ended off 1/16 to 12 1/16.

Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) fell 7/16 to 75 after the company said it won an airline B2B exchange contract. Rivals Commerce One (Nasdaq: CMRC) and Ariba (Nasdaq: ARBA) slid 2 11/16 and 10 1/4 a share, respectively.

Priceline (Nasdaq: PCLN) topped earnings estimates easily, but investors weren't impressed as its shares closed off 8 15/16 to 31 1/8.

Sun Microsystems (SUNW) closed off 3 9/16 to 100 7/16 while Microsoft (MSFT) and IBM) ended off 1 13/16 and 2 1/4 a share, respectively.

Intel (INTC) chopped off 1/8 to 138 1/16 and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) clipped 2 9/16 to end at 77 9/16.

Among widely held network-equipment stocks, Cisco Systems (CSCO) fell 2 1/16 to 66 1/16; Nortel Networks (NT) lopped off 1 to 80 1/4; Lucent Technologies (LU) trimmed 1 to 50 1/8 and 3Com (COMS) closed off 1 5/8 to 66 3/8.