Technology stocks shaved off most of their gains in late trading Tuesday after the Federal Reserve Board announced it would leave interest rates unchanged. The Nasdaq composite moved up 5 points to 3,958.27 while the Dow added 59 points to 11,139.15.
"This is the expected outcome," said Barry Hyman, market strategist for Ehrenkrantz, King Nussbaum Inc, in New York. "We have run up to this. I wouldn't be surprised to see some profit taking."
Sun Microsystems (SUNW) added 1/8 to 122 3/16 while Oracle (ORCL) and Microsoft (MSFT) picked up 3/8 and 5/8 a share, respectively.
DSL.net Inc. (Nasdaq: DSLN) shot up 3 3/32 to 6 7/32 on news it had inked a deal with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to offer digital subscriber line (DSL) access and services to IBM's small business customers. IBM (IBM) shares fell 1/8 to 121 5/16.
Avici Systems (AVCI) fell 10 3/4 to 131 1/4 after Lehman Brothers assigned it a "neutral" rating, while the company's other two underwriters rated it "outperform" and "buy."
Yahoo! (YHOO) lost 2 15/16 to 127 1/2. America Online (AOL) gained 1 3/16 to 58 while eBay (EBAY) and Lycos (LCOS) closed up 5/8 and 1/16 a share, respectively. Amazon.com (AMZN) closed down 1 to 36 1/2.
Ask Jeeves Inc. (Nasdaq: ASKJ) clipped 1/4 to 20 5/16 after announcing a partnership with Vignette Corp. (Nasdaq: VIGN) that will integrate its e-commerce and customer-support software with Vignette's e-business platform. Vignette shares closed up 9/16 to 38 1/4.
Shares of MP3.com (Nasdaq: MPPP) picked up 1 19/32 to 9 11/32 after signing a deal that settled a copyright lawsuit with Sony Music Entertainment.
Among widely held PC stocks, Dell (DELL) lost 1 5/16 to 37 7/16; Apple Computer (AAPL) gained 1 3/16 to 51 11/16; Compaq (CPQ) trimmed 3/16 to 33 and Gateway (GTW) added 3/4 to 63.
Intel (INTC) inched up 1/16 to 72 1/8 and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) tacked on 1/32 to 34 1/8.