Pulse: Good News Not Enough for Palm and Research in Motion

The Nasdaq Composite stopped just short of an eighth straight losing session as an early bargain-hunting session among tech stocks almost turned sour in the face of continuing poor earnings reports.

Net/Tech Indices INDEX CHANGE % VALUE TSC Internet 13.70 -4.61% 283.63 TSC E-Commerce 0.60 -4.02% 14.34 TSC E-Finance 0.82 -3.15% 25.24 Nasdaq 7.34 +0.31% 2340.12

Even relatively good news wasn't especially well received. Palm (PALM Quote), which brought in numbers at the high end of its forecast, got smacked today, apparently because the news wasn't quite good enough.

Palm announced $522 million in revenue for the quarter and beat Street estimates by a penny a share.

"They didn't meet the whisper number," said Lehman Brothers analyst Joseph To. "Some people are looking for any chink in the armor."

Palm closed down $12.50, or 32.8%, to $25.63.

Research in Motion (RIMM Quote), which makes the Blackberry handheld device, went the same route, despite beating Street estimates of a penny-a-share loss and earning two cents a share. Research in Motion closed down $9.06, or 12.1%, to $65.94.

Elsewhere, warning and bad reports sent related shares tumbling like dominoes.

Streaming media leader RealNetworks (RNWK Quote) lowered its forecasts for the fourth quarter and for 2001. Multiple downgrades followed. So did the prices of some related stocks.

RealNetworks closed down $4.37, or 44%, to $5.56.

Thomas Weisel downgraded Akamai Technologies (AKAM Quote) because the miss by RealNetworks indicated a potentially slower rollout of servers. Akamai ended the day down 11.5%.

Modem maker Conexant (CNXT Quote) warned yesterday that its fourth-quarter revenues were going to fall as a result of weaker end demand. That got revised estimates from WR Hambrecht for chipmakers Xilinx (XLNX Quote) and Broadcom (BRCM Quote), which make semiconductors used in high-speed Internet access.

Conexant closed down $6.37, or 31.3%, to $14. Broadcom finished down 14.1%, and Xilinx ended the day up 1.9%

2:57 p.m.: Most Networkers Shaking Off Lucent's Woes

Bargain hunters were creeping back into networking stocks after Wednesday's broad tech selloff, mostly unfazed by the weird family reunion of AT&T(T Quote) and its spin-off Lucent(LU Quote). Both companies issued earnings warnings one right after the other since the market closed yesterday.

Net/Tech Indices INDEX CHANGE % VALUE TSC Internet 17.60 -5.92% 279.73 TSC E-Commerce 0.49 -3.28% 14.45 TSC E-Finance 0.71 -2.72% 25.35 Nasdaq 11.6 -0.5% 2321.1

Lucent this morning said its first-quarter revenues would fall far short and that it was undertaking a $1 billion cost-cutting reorganization. Lucent also readjusted its third quarter report, saying the $125 million in "revenue recognition" problems had grown to $679 million.

Investors and analysts were taking the position that Lucent's most recent problem was most likely its own fault. The company, after all, has been plagued by problems and this was its fifth consecutive warning this year. "It seems to me the problem is internal controls," said analyst Charles DiSanza of Gerard Klauer Mattison, noting that Lucent began issuing warnings as far back as January. The firm has done no recent underwriting for Lucent.

Merrill Lynch analyst Michael Ching also wrote that even though Lucent blamed weaker technology demand for its problems, "we also believe that Lucent's problems are company-specific."

Investors seemed to agree. In recent trading Lucent was down $1.37, or 8.9%, to $14.13, a new 52-week low.

Still, several of its networking competitors seemed to be holding their own. To be sure, these stocks have taken their own beatings recently, and investors might have thought they could snap up some good prices. They were buying Cisco(CSCO Quote), which hit a 52-week low yesterday. Today Cisco was trading up $3.25, or 8.9%, to $39.75. But let's not sugar coat the situation. Cisco is still trading far off its 52-week high of $82.

Chief networking rival Nortel(NT Quote), which recently reaffirmed its fourth-quarter numbers, was up 2.6%. Some observers, however, suggest Nortel will meet its fourth-quarter targets only by pushing sales up from the first quarter. This, of course, would set next year off on the wrong foot, and investors are already finding it hard to get cheery about 2001. Last quarter, remember, Nortel blindsided the Street with a disappointing optical sales forecast.

Cisco, Nortel and Lucent have all increased their financing efforts for customers as telcos find their traditional capital sources drying up. Investors question whether bankrolling network building projects is a wise move at a time when so many telcos are encountering financial trouble. TheStreet.com recently wrote about what these efforts mean for the networkers.

But as the Nasdaq has come down from earlier highs today, some former gainers for the day were recently lower. Ciena(CIEN Quote), which was up more than 6% earlier today, was lately off 1.3%. And Juniper(JNPR Quote) was lately off 5.2%.