MIDDAY MARKETS: Intel worries weigh down techs

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

2 min read

Techs were unable to hold Friday's gains, as worries over Intel's approaching quarterly report dragged the sector down at midday Monday. The Nasdaq tumbled 42.99 to 3,273.78 while the Dow Jones industrial average rose 66.31 to 10,860.69.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index fell 7 to 459.51.

Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) slipped 10 percent, or 4 to 36.38 ahead of its third quarter earnings report Tuesday, as analysts continued to express caution about the chip giant's future growth. AMD (NYSE: AMD) was down 1.57 to 20.31.

PurchasePro.com Inc. (Nasdaq: PPRO) was up 20 percent, or 6.93 to 42 after the stock was named "single best idea" at Prudential Volpe Technology Group. Ariba (Nasdaq: ARBA) was up 14.19 to 135.88 and FreeMarket (Nasdaq: FMKT) was up 3 to 44.5.

Struggling online pharmacy PlanetRX (Nasdaq: PLRX), unchanged at 0.30, is asking shareholders to approve a one-for-eight stock split, in a move designed to bump up its share price and keep the firm from being delisted.

L90 Inc. (Nasdaq: LNTY), up 0.94 to 7, said it sees revenue, gross margin and EPS for the third quarter of 2000 coming in above analyst expectations due to the strong momentum of its ProfiTools product.

Exabyte Corp. (Nasdaq: EXBT), down 2.5 to 8.69, said third quarter loss was $7.51 million, or 33 cents a share, a penny narrower than First Call's expected loss of 34 cents a share.

Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB), down 1.06 to 80.38, has acquired a majority of Convergent Group Corp. (Nasdaq: CVGP), which sells software and services to utilities and local governments, in a deal worth $276 million.

Seagate (NYSE: SEG), up 0.06 to 68.44, and Veritas (Nasdaq: VRTS), up 1.38 to 142.19, have settled a shareholder lawsuit related to Seagate's plans to go private.

Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) fell 2.18 to 26.25, AOL (NYSE: AOL) dropped 1 to 52 and Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) fell 3 to 57.

Among other leading tech issues: Cisco (Nasdaq:CSCO) dropped 1.06 to 55, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) was down 3.25 to 50.5, and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) shed 0.63 to 35.