Despite a profit warning from Dell, technology stocks held their ground Monday as the Nasdaq composite trimmed 12 points to 2,757.93. The Dow Jones industrial average clipped 9 points to finish at 10,578.24.
“There is a lot of cash sitting on the sidelines that needs to be put to work,” said George Rodriguez, senior vice president at Guzman & Co. “As an investor, you are proceeding slowly into most investments. I don't think Dell caught people by surprise, but what we are waiting for is Fed action. Expectations are for the Fed to cut rates at least a quarter of a point.”
Dell Computer (Nasdaq: DELL) gave investors an early scare Monday when it issued a warning that fourth-quarter earnings would miss analysts’ estimates by as much as 8 cents a share. The stock recovered in late trading to finish off 13 cents to $25.50.
Compaq (NYSE: CPQ) which announced that it will become Yahoo's (YHOO) "preferred" source for servers, storage systems, PCs, laptops, handheld computers and other hardware, closed off 68 cents to $19.82. Gateway (GTW) lost $2.24 to $21.45 and Apple Computer (AAPL) dropped 25 cents to $19.25.
Intel (INTC) clipped 19 cents to $33.38. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) closed off 56 cents to $21.44 and IBM (IBM) chopped off $2.69 to end at $108.56.
Marchfirst (Nasdaq: MRCH) gained $1.28 to $3.16 after a CS First Boston analyst reinstated coverage of the stock with a "buy" rating.
InfoSpace (Nasdaq: INSP) plunged $1.88 to $7.03 after it said it has reappointed Naveen Jain as chief executive, effective immediately. The company also named a new chief operating officer and chief financial officer.
Yahoo (YHOO) moved up 88 cents to $34.69. America Online (AOL) inched up 4 cents to $53.84 while Amazon.com (AMZN) and eBay (EBAY) fell $1.44 and 69 cents a share, respectively. CMGI (CMGI) closed up 47 cents to $6.16.
Fairchild Semiconductor International (NYSE: FCS) rose 19 cents to $17.69 after announcing it will buy Intersil Corp.'s (Nasdaq: ISIL), up 25 cents to $29.25, discrete power business for about $338 million in cash.
BellSouth Corp. (NYSE: BLS) shaved off $1.63 to $41.38 after it reported fourth-quarter earnings of 59 cents a share Monday, on target with consensus estimates. The company said solid performance continued in its growth areas of data, wireless and international business, and reaffirmed growth projections for 2001.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) rallied up $1.06 to 41.44 while Lucent Technologies (LU) and Nortel Networks (NT) closed off $1.50 and $1.75 a share, respectively.