Profit worries kept technology stocks in check Thursday as the Nasdaq composite fell 93 points to 3,760.24. The Dow Jones industrial average inched up 3 points to close at 10,908.76.
"It's a meandering market,'' said Arnold Berman, technology strategist at Wit SoundView. "For the most part, the bets being made are small and are being made without a sense of conviction."
Despite strong earnings reports from technology leaders, investors have shied away from taking substantial positions in the sector.
Applied Materials (AMAT) shares fell 2 7.8 to 69 1/4 despite easily topping analysts' estimates in its third quarter.
Intel (INTC) lost 1 9/16 to 62 and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) lopped off 5 to 56 3/4 and IBM (IBM) moved up 1 to 119 3/4.
Vignette Corp. (Nasdaq: VIGN) jumped 1 5/8 to 37 1/2 after the company reached a wide-ranging agreement with Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW), off 1 1/4 to 110 1/2, to develop, market and sell e-commerce products worldwide.
Oracle (ORCL) dropped 1 5/16 to 80 1/16 and Microsoft (MSFT) closed off 1 5/8 to 72 5/8.
Yahoo! (YHOO) shaved off 3 3/8 to 129 5/16. America Online (AOL) clipped 3/4 to 51 7/8 while Amazon.com (AMZN) and eBay (EBAY) closed down 7/16 and 1 1/16 a share, respectively. Lycos (LCOS) picked up 3/4 to 57 7/8.
Bluefly Inc. (Nasdaq: BFLY) trimmed 1/16 to 2 1/2 after making progress in its second quarter, but warning that it has to pursue "strategic alternatives" because it's running low on cash.
Among widely held PC stocks, Dell (DELL) trimmed 1/16 to 41 3/4; Compaq (CPQ) added 3/8 to 31 5/8; Gateway (GTW) gained 1 to 60 3/4 and Apple Computer (AAPL) inched up 1/4 to 47 3/4.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) lost 4 7/16 to 63 3/8 while Nortel Networks (NT) and Lucent Technologies (LU) closed off 15/16 and 1/2 a share, respectively.
Be respectful, keep it clean and stay on topic. We delete comments that violate our policy, which we encourage you to read. Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion.