Where did the bulls go?
Brokers marched onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday hoping to enjoy yet another prosperous day in what had become their little Pamplona on Wall Street.
By the time the bell sounded, it had turned into Yellowstone.
The bulls were nowhere to be found Thursday, but several technology stocks were trampled and gored as the NASDAQ shed 23.71 points to close at 1699.66. The Big Board had its own problems, plummeting 119.10 points to 7938.88.
From the get-go, there were no signs of impending disaster on the horizon. Benign inflation data courtesy of the Labor Department showed the consumer price index up only 0.2 percent in September, less than the 0.3 percent most economists had anticipated. Everything looked fine.
But then the Great Tech Sell-off got under way.
Apple Computer Inc. got slammed, dropping $2.31 per share to $21. Intel Corp. lost $1.31 per share to $85.38. Sun Microsystems Inc., which later posted lower-than-expected earnings, slipped $3.31 per share to $42.31.
It was just plain ugly in every sector.
Ironically, most companies reporting earnings Thursday did as well as or better than expected.
Digital Equipment Corp. dropped $1.50 per share to $48.88 despite beating estimates by a penny, and Compaq Computer Corp. lost $4 per share to $73.25 after a strong third-quarter report. Dell Computer Corp. also fell out of favor, down $4.06 per share to $98.81.
Not surprisingly, telecommunications stocks were the most active issues Thursday, with MCI Corp. gaining $1.25 per share to $38.13, WorldCom losing 69 cents per share to $34.75 and AT&T off $1.31 per share to $43.56.
Perhaps the only sign of life came from Check Point Software Inc., which closed up $10.13 per share to $43.63 after beating estimates in its third quarter by a staggering 13 cents per share.
Sandisk Corp. probably thought Thursday would be its day to shine, but company officials surely weren't mugging for their digital cameras after the stock lost $8 per share to close at $30. This comes after it beat Wall Street estimates by more than 10 cents per share by posting a profit of 27 cents per share in the third quarter. Apparently the fourth-quarter outlook made investors frown.