Tech stocks take another battering
Profit warnings, profit taking and nagging concerns about interest rates were mainly responsible for the tech sector's decline.
"Things got a little bit too rosy and there's a bit of a comeuppance now," said Larry Wachtel, a market analyst at Prudential Securities.
Surprisingly, Gateway surged 4 5/8 to 59 5/8 after several analysts reiterated their "buy" ratings.
Dell fell 1 15/16 to 48 and Compaq added 3/8 to 28 7/8. Apple lopped off 9 to end at 95.
AMD gained 3/4 to 30 3/4 after it got an upgrade from an AMD critic Thursday after Gateway said it can't get enough Intel chips and could go back to AMD. Intel shares closed off 4 7/8 to 78 ¾ and IBM closed up 1 1/4 to 117 1/4.
Nortel Networks shed 4 7/8 to 85 after it said it will buy Promatory Communications, a developer of DSL platforms for high-speed Internet access, for up to $778m (£482m) in its common stock.
Lucent lost 3 3/8 to 69 but could lose even more ground after issuing a first-quarter profit warning after the bell. Cisco dipped 1 11/16 to 100 and 3Com closed up 3/16 to 44 1/4.
Internet stocks absorbed another drubbing Thursday as Yahoo! plunged 42 5/16 to 368 3/16 and AOL shed 3 1/8 to 70 15/16. Excite@Home dipped 1 9/16 to 38 3/8. Lycos fell 6 11/32 to 65 1/32 and Amazon.com closed off 4 3/16 to 65 9/16.
Barnesandnoble.com gained 5/8 to 14 13/16 as it said fourth quarter sales more than tripled to $81.5m. The company also said its fourth quarter loss would be in line with projections.
Microsoft shed 3 13/16 to 110. Oracle slid 6 to 96 and Sun Microsystems closed off 3 7/8 to 68.
Business management software maker PeopleSoft rose 3 15/16 to 22 as it said it expects its fourth quarter earnings to range between 2 and 4 cents per share.
Cobalt shares gained 13 5/8 to 24 1/8 after the automotive service company said it would create an Internet site that will move it into the hot business-to-business electronic-commerce sector.
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