MARKET CLOSE: Internet stocks stumble

Investors chipped away at Internet stocks Monday, sending some of the past week's biggest gainers into a bit of a tailspin. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 7 points to 11,200.98 while the Nasdaq trimmed 2 points to close at 2,790.67.

Light trading, which kept the market from making any significant moves in either direction, made for some volatile moves in the Internet sector.

Infoseek Corp. (SEEK) fell 5 9/16 to 45 15/16 after Walt Disney Co. (DIS) said it would buy the remainder of the portal. Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) lost 9 3/4 to 150 1/4 while Excite At Home Corp. (ATHM) and Lycos Inc. (LCOS) closed off 2 5/16 and 4 3/16 a share, respectively.

America Online Inc. (AOL) dropped 6 1/16 to 122 3/16 and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) plunged 8 to close at 117 1/2.

Lance Zipper, head of trading at Brean Murray & Co., said the Internet shares' drop reflected profit-taking by investors after the hot streak.

"The buyers are taking a rest," he said. "Maybe they are taking a three-day weekend."

Ameritrade Holding Corporation (AMTD) shed 2 1/16 to 36 1/16 after the company beat Street estimates in its third quarter.

Conexant Systems Inc. (CNXT) picked up 2 1/16 to 63 9/16 after company officials announced the maker of analog PC and fax modem chipsets will join the Nasdaq 100 Index Wednesday.

Internet access providers High Speed Access (HSAC) and Metricom Inc. (MCOM) were hammered after making huge gains in the past two weeks.

Intel Corp. (INTC) fell 13/16 to 65 7/16 ahead of Tuesday's earnings report. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) inched up 3/8 to 17 3/8 and IBM Corp. (IBM) closed off 5/16 to 137 1/16.

Dell Computer Corp. (DELL) gained 13/16 to 43 5/8 after an upgrade from SG Cowen while Compaq Computer Corp. (CPQ) and Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) lost 5/16 and 1 1/8 a share, respectively. Gateway Inc. (GTW) added 2 1/8 to 69 3/4.

Among widely held networking stocks, Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) fell 1 3/8 to 65 11/16; 3Com Corp. (COMS) lost 9/16 to 26 13/16 and Lucent Technologies Inc. (LU) rose 1 5/8 to 73 9/16.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) picked up 15/16 to 94 3/16. Oracle Corp. (ORCL) lost 7/16 to 38 7/8 and Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW) closed up 2 1/4 to 75 3/16.