Wednesday was definitely "hump day" on Wall Street, as tech stocks tried to get over the hump that is the break-even point, but simply could not find the motivation to move very far.
With no major economic reports and several companies announcing layoffs, tech stocks fared far better than the low close for the Nasdaq would indicate, with most tech stocks closing up.
The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 2.84, or 0.03 percent, to 10,646.97 while the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 18.80, or 0.66 percent, to 2,859.19. The Standard and Poor's 500 index was up 3.90, or 0.29 percent, to 1,364.30.
Tech stocks seem to want to go up but investors are being very judicious in their choices, said one analyst. "I think that people are looking across the valley, and if valuations are not too high they are pretty happy with things," said Bert Hochfeld, technology analyst with Josephthal & Co., in New York.
"People are basically saying they know Q1 and Q2 are throwaways, if we're lucky enough we won't get creamed, but we know most of the companies will do poorly," he said. "But, what they're really trying to do is position themselves for companies that are gonna produce strong growth in the second half of '01."
The averages tend to mask better performances of smaller stocks, like Aspen Technology (AZPN), Art Technology Group (ARTG) and Blue Martini (BLUE). "You've basically got a lot of the less highly valued stocks that continue to do very well," said Hochfeld. "I think it's the very top, the Nasdaq 100, that is running into resistance but secondary stocks are doing well. I think there's a lot of money that wants to go into reasonably valued companies."
Business Internet
VeriSign (VRSN) soared 7 to 81 1/2 after easily topping its fourth quarter earnings estimates while i2 (ITWO) jumped 4 1/64 to 60 7/16, Exodus (EXDS) rose 2 3/16 to 28 3/16, CommerceOne (CMRC) was up 2 13/16 to 34 3/4 and Qwest (Q) rose 2 7/16 to 47 1/16. Ariba (ARBA) slipped 59/64 to 40 7/8.
Consumer Internet
Some of the big names appear to be back in favor. Yahoo (YHOO) jumped 3 59/64 to 42 7/8, eBay (EBAY) rose 2 to 54 3/8 and Amazon (AMZN) gained 2 59/64 to 21 7/8. AOL (AOL) rose 1.60 to 55.75 as it chopped 2,500 jobs, off mostly Time Warner, and CMGI (CMGI) picked up 11/16 to 7 1/4. DoubleClick (DCLK) lost 7/16 to 16 7/8 and Liberate (LBRT) dropped 9/16 to 17 1/4.
Software
Microsoft (MSFT) jumped 2 3/8 to 62 15/16, Symantec (SYMC) gained 3 5/16 to 52 11/16, Intuit (INTU) was up 2 to 37 1/2, BroadVision (BVSN) rose 1 5/8 to 16 15/16 and Adobe (ADBE) gained 11/16 to 60 1/8. Oracle (ORCL) dropped 1 27/64 to 30 1/16 and Electronic Arts (ERTS) lost 1/2 to 42 1/4.
Hardware
Lexmark led this group, up 2 to 55 3/4, Sun (SUNW) rose 1 3/16 to 32 3/4, IBM (IBM) was up 1 3/8 to 110 7/16, Compaq (CPQ) picked up 1.80 to 21.85 and Hewlett-Packard (HWP) rose 11/16 to 35. EMC (EMC) slipped 1/8 to 79 7/16.
Networking
Level 3 (LVLT) jumped 3 5/16 to 49 11/16, Tellabs (TLAB) gained 2 15/16 to 61 13/16, Lucent (LU) rose 13/16 to 19 5/8 after posting a $1 billion operating loss and announcing it would lay off 10,000 people, or 10 percent of its workforce, in a restructuring. Juniper (JNPR) dropped 1 43/64 to 134, JDS Uniphase (JDSU) lost 13/16 to 63 1/16 and Ciena (CIEN) was off 43/64 to 102.
Semiconductors
Tough sailing in this sector. Broadcom (BRCM) dropped 8 1/2 to 124 15/16 on concerns that its 2001 revenues could be questionable while Cypress Semiconductor (CY) fell 1 3/4 to 26, LSI Logic (LSI) lost 1.40, National Semiconductor (NSM) fell 13/16 to 27 3/8 and PMC Sierra (PMCS) dropped 5/16 to 103 1/8. Rambus (RMBS) jumped 4 1/2 to 53 11/16, Intel () gained 7/8 to 36 1/4 and Transmeta (TMTA) was up 7/8 to 25 1/4.
