MIDDAY MARKETS: Cisco drags techs down
The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index fell 3 to 455.45.
Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) gained 0.88 to 56 after a shaky start following its first-quarter report. The company’s statements about inventory levels caused a ripple of analyst actions and falling communications chip stocks. PMC-Sierra (Nasdaq: PMCS) dropped 24.13 to 129.69, Broadcom (Nasdaq: BRCM) lost 29.88 to 189.1, Altera (Nasdaq: ALTR) shed 3.69 to 29.63 and Xilinx (Nasdaq: XLNX) was down 5.69 to 67.19.
Competitors JDS Uniphase (Nasdaq: JDSU), down 3.75 to 73.69, and Juniper (Nasdaq: JNPR), down 2.18 to 216.63, were also affected by the news. Transmeta Corp. (Nasdaq: TMTA) priced 13 million shares at $21, $3 above its range of $16 to $18, a sign that demand is strong despite news that Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) is the latest large computer manufacturer to pass over Transmeta Corp.'s Crusoe processor. News of IBM's (NYSE: IBM) decision to abandon Crusoe came out last week.
Vertel (Nasdaq: VRTL) shares were up 40 percent at midday, climbing 1.63 to 5.69, after the company announced it has sold licenses of its products to two companies in China.
VerticalNet (Nasdaq: VERT) said it will buy SierraCities (Nasdaq: BTOB) for $133 million in stock. Separately, SierraCities released its third quarter results, falling short of analyst estimates with earning of 1 cent per share. VerticalNet is down 0.19 to 29.31 while SierraCities is trading up 1.69 to 5.93 at midday.
Level 3 Communications (Nasdaq: LVLT) said Tuesday it is comfortable with previously raised estimates, and plans to revise its 2001 revenue projection. Shares were trading up 2.44 to 37.44.
ECI Telecom Ltd. (Nasdaq: ECIL), up 0.31 to 24.19, met analyst estimates Tuesday posting 15 percent revenue growth compared to the same period last year. Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) rose 1.50 to 38.06, AOL (NYSE: AOL) gained 0.46 to 56.32 and Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) was up 2.88 to 68.5.
Among other leading tech issues: Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) fell 0.50 to 46.06, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) gained 2.19 to 71.69, and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) shed 0.25 to 27.69.