Beatings Subside Briefly as B2B Stocks Rally

After getting scrooged for most of December, B2B investors got an early Christmas present Friday as a broader technology rally led to outsize gains in the sector.

B2B leaders Ariba(ARBA Quote - Cramer on ARBA - Stock Picks) and Commerce One(CMRC Quote - Cramer on CMRC - Stock Picks) were up 9% and 12%, respectively, as the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 6%. Lately, Ariba shares were up $4.44 to $52.30, while Commerce One's stock was ahead $2.38 to $22.75.

Commerce One's move comes after it was clocked on Wednesday when VerticalNet(VERT Quote - Cramer on VERT - Stock Picks) snatched away one of its big customers. From last Friday through last night, the stock had lost 44% of its value.

"They were beaten down a little too far, and now they're coming back," says Patrick Walravens, an analyst at Lehman Brothers who rates Ariba neutral and Commerce One outperform. His firm hasn't done underwriting for either. "Look at Commerce One. That, in my mind, has got to be an overreaction. To cut nearly half their market cap because they lost a pilot customer seems a little overdone."

Other B2Bs were also doing well. Investors in i2 Technologies(ITWO Quote - Cramer on ITWO - Stock Picks) were feeling merry as their shares rose $6, or 14%, to $49.31. Of course, that's still 21% lower than the stock's Dec. 11 close.

PurchasePro.com(PPRO Quote - Cramer on PPRO - Stock Picks) was up $3.25, or 25%, to $15.81. It had lost 36% of its value since Dec. 13. Thursday, the company announced a partnership with BroadVision(BVSN Quote - Cramer on BVSN - Stock Picks) in which the companies will help sell and distribute each other's software.

Lehman's Walravens, who rates PurchasePro strong buy, said even more cheer may be ahead for the stock.

"Of Ariba, Commerce One and PurchasePro, PurchasePro is the one I'd be watching over the next three weeks," said Walravens, whose firm hasn't done underwriting for the company.

Manugistics(MANU Quote - Cramer on MANU - Stock Picks), FreeMarkets(FMKT Quote - Cramer on FMKT - Stock Picks), Oracle(ORCL Quote - Cramer on ORCL - Stock Picks) and BroadVision were also seeing smaller, but significant, jumps.