Market Close: Tech stocks hammered in massive selloff
Earlier in the day, Tokyo shares fell 1.6 percent to a new 12-year low. Blue chips in London sank 3.1 percent to close at new lows for the year, while the key index in Frankfurt, Germany, closed down 5.5 percent and the main indicator in Paris was off 5 percent.
All this turmoil comes just two days after the Federal Reserve Board cut short-term interest rates by one-quarter of a point in an attempt to thwart a global economic crisis.
Even U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin took the opportunity Thursday to comment on the plunging markets.
"Just as there was a herd mentality on the way in, I believe there is a herd mentality with respect to the withdrawal of capital not only from emerging markets but from many asset classes," Rubin told Reuters.
The herd definitely rumbled out of the technology arena as the Nasdaq suffered its third-largest, one-day loss in history.
In fact, all of the 30 stocks regularly followed by Inter@ctive Investor finished in the red.
Internet stocks took the deepest cuts Thursday as Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) lost 16 9/16 to close at 112 15/16 and America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL) dropped 113/4 to 99 7/8.
Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq:AMZN) tumbled 9 to 102 5/8 while Excite Inc. (Nasdaq:XCIT) and Lycos Inc. (Nasdaq:LCOS) plunged 5 1/4 and 4 1/8 a share, respectively. Infoseek Corp. (Nasdaq:SEEK) dropped 2 1/8 to 22 1/2 and Netscape Communications Corp. (Nasdaq:NSCP) sank 1 7/16 to 20 7/16.
Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO) shed 4 9/16 to 57 1/4. Ascend Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:ASND) chopped off 4 7/16 and 3Com Corp. (Nasdaq:COMS) slid 9/16 to 29 1/2.
Among widely held PC stocks, Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq:DELL) plunged 4 3/16 to 61 9/16; Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ) shed 1 5/8 to 30; Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) lost 2 7/16 to 35 11/16 and Gateway Inc. (NYSE:GTW) sank 2 11/16 to 49 5/8.
Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC) fell 2 5/16 to 83 7/16. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE:AMD) chopped off 15/16 to 17 5/8 and IBM Corp. (NYSE:IBM) tumbled 3 3/16 to 125 5/16.
Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT) fell 6 to 104 1/16. Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq:ORCL) and Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq:SUNW)) closed off 2 1/8 and 4 1/4 a share, respectively.
AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T) lost 1 3/16 to 57 1/4 and MCI WorldCom Inc. (Nasdaq:WCOM) shed 2 13/16 to 46 1/16. GTE Corp. (NYSE:GTE) had perhaps the best day of any stock, closing unchanged at 55.
Reuters contributed to this report.