STOCKS TO WATCH: Amazon.com, Go2Net, JDS Uniphase and VerticalNet

Investors will be reacting to the online retailer's second-quarter earnings report.

While Amazon.com did beat the Street estimate, it still lost $89 million, or 33 cents a share, on sales of $578 million.

First Call Corp. consensus expected the online retailer to lose 35 cents a share in the quarter.

Ahead of the earnings report, Amazon.com shares fell 1 9/16 to 36 1/16, primarily as a result of a scathing downgrade and research note from Lehman Brothers analyst Holly Becker.

The stock slid to 32 1/4 in after-hours trading.

The $578 million in sales represents an 84 percent jump from the year-ago quarter when it lost $67.2 million, or 26 cents a share, on sales of $314 million.

Go2Net shares will be on the rise Thursday after InfoSpace (Nasdaq: INSP) said it will issue 1.82 shares of stock for each outstanding share of the Internet content aggregator.

Go2Net shares closed off 1 9/16 to 60 9/16 ahead of the merger announcement before shooting up 9 9/16 in after-hours trading.

InfoSpace easily topped analysts' estimates in its second quarter Wednesday and announced it will pay a hefty premium to acquire Internet content aggregator Go2Net in stock deal valued at more than $4 billion.

The board of directors of both companies have approved the deal and expect it to close sometime in the fourth quarter.

Wednesday's most actively traded issue figures to similar action Thursday after it beat analysts' estimates in its fourth quarter.

JDS Uniphase earned $114 million, or 14 cents a share, on sales of $524 million.

First Call Corp. consensus expected the maker of fiber-optic network equipment to earn 12 cents a share in the quarter.

Its shares closed up 5 13/16 to 136 ahead of the earnings report.

The $524 million in sales marks a 173 percent improvement from the year-ago quarter when it earned $41 million, or 6 cents a share, on sales of $192 million.

For the fiscal year, JDS Uniphase pocketed $327 million, or 42 cents a share, on sales of $1.43 billion, up from a profit of $125 million, or 18 cents a share, on sales of $282.8 million in fiscal 1999.

JDS Uniphase will be added to the S&P 500 Index after the bell.

Earlier this quarter, it announced it will buy SDL Inc. (Nasdaq: SDLI) for $41 billion in stock.

VerticalNet posted a second-quarter loss of $18.8 million, or 23 cents a share, on sales of $53.6 million.

Analysts were expecting a loss of 30 cents a share in the quarter.

Its shares traded at 56 23/64 in after-hours trading after closing at 56 3/4 ahead of the earnings report.