Market Close: Another rough day for Internets

Internet stocks led the entire technology sector lower Monday as the Nasdaq composite plunged 67 points to 2,453.64 and the Dow Jones industrial average lost 175 points to close at 10,654.67.

With a dearth of substantial news coming out and a three-day Memorial weekend on the horizon, light trading made for dramatic swings in widely held Internet offerings.

"We're seeing considerable weakness in the technology sector due to the lack of any positive news out there," said Barry Hyman, market strategist at Ehrenkrantz, King Nussbaum Inc.

America Online Inc. (AOL) continued its pullback Monday, closing off 7 3/8 to 119 1/16. Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) plunged 13 7/16 to 137 7/8 and Excite Inc. (XCIT) shaved off 14 7/8 to end at 118 1/16.

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) dropped 11 1/16 to 117 1/2 and Infoseek Corp. (SEEK) slid 2 5/16 to 42 7/8. Lycos Inc. (LCOS) lost 8 7/8 to 97 3/4.

Among widely held networking stocks, Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) fell 3 7/8 to 109 3/8; Ascend Communications Inc. (ASND) shed 2 1/4 to 91 1/4; 3Com Corp. (COMS) dipped 1 11/16 to 27 3/4 and Lucent Technologies Inc. (LU) closed off 1 to 56 9/16.

Dell Computer Corp. (DELL) closed off 1 3/16 to 36 1/8 after a Barron's article described the PC seller among a handful of technology stocks a portfolio manager considered "overvalued."

Compaq Computer Corp. (CPQ) was unchanged at 25 1/6 and Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) lost 2 to 41 15/16. Gateway Inc. (GTW) added 1/4 to 61 9/16.

Texas Micro Inc. (TEXM) shot up 1 1/4 to 6 1/8 after Radisys Corp. (RSYS) agreed to buy the company. Customtracks Corp. (CUST) stormed up 15 1/16 to 76 after announcing the release of its new online transaction security software for the third quarter.

IBM Corp. (IBM) plunged 6 13/16 to 223 9/16. Intel Corp. (INTC) lost 1 1/16 to 55 15/16 and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) closed off 1 7/16 to 19 1/16.