The Night Watch: Peregrine Dives, but Paradyne Takes Off

Even though investors had plenty of news to digest after the close Tuesday the extended session wasn't seeing heavy trading, but that didn't stop several big name winners and losers from emerging.

Merger partners Hewlett-Packard (HWP) and Compaq (CPQ) were among the most active stocks after the bell following news that a Delaware judge ruled that the deal can go through, thwarting Walter Hewlett's attempt to stop the union. H-P was down 1.4% to $16.86, but Compaq was climbing 3.4% to $14.69.

Paradyne Networks (PDYN) was the big winner, trading up 32% to $3.05 after the company posted quarterly earnings that easily beat estimates. PC-Tel (PCTI) was climbing 8.2% to $8.87 after it topped the consensus bottom line forecast even as revenue fell.

Among the declining issues, S1 (SONE) was falling 24% to $6.80 on the heels of the company's quarterly loss and warning that more red ink is coming. Peregrine Systems (PRGN) was lower by 12% to $6 after the company said its fourth-quarter report will be delayed while its new auditors go over its results. Sycamore Networks (SCMR) was off almost 7% to $3.15, thanks to the revelation that third-quarter revenue will fall short of analysts' expectations.

Widely held shares, mostly tech stocks, were taking up the majority of the slots on the Instinet volume leader board. The Nasdaq 100 Unit Trust (QQQ) was the most active issue, tacking on 0.1% to $31.75. WorldCom (WCOM) was down 2% to $2.43, and Tyco (TYC) was gaining 1.1% to $18.65.

Oracle (ORCL) was up 0.5%, and Cisco (CSCO) was ahead by 0.3%. Dell (DELL) was up 0.4%, while Microsoft (MSFT) inched down 0.2%.

Sun Micro (SUNW) tacked on 0.2%, and Intel (INTC) was unchanged.

Overall, volume was on the light side. In the first two hours of extra trading, around 2.5 million shares changed hands among the 20 most active stocks being swapped on Instinet.

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