Market Update: Stocks End Week Deep in the Red; Dow and Nasdaq Both Bloodied

The Nasdaq Composite Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were walloped today as both ended solidly lower.

The Nasdaq was on the downside all day -- and ended at about session lows -- but the Dow had a volatile session, even at one point crossing the flatline for a brief visit to the green.

Major Indices INDEX CHANGE % VALUE YR TO DATE Dow 99.10 -0.91% 10,781.45 -0.1% S&P 500 17.77 -1.33% 1314.76 -0.4% Nasdaq 91.09 -3.56% 2470.97 -0.0% Russell 2000 5.91 -1.18% 496.98 2.8% TSC Internet 15.87 -4.64% 326.42 8.6% NOTE CHANGE PRICE YIELD 10-Year Treasury 15/32 99 25/32 5.028% Market data as of: 4:16 p.m. EST, Feb. 9, 2001

Tech stocks were again out of favor. Bad news from software maker Oracle(ORCL) and PC-giant Dell(DELL) helped sparked today's selloff.

Dell was under pressure from reports that it was cutting expenses by up to 10% and that it may cut as many as 4,000 jobs.

Oracle was the victim of some cautious comments from Morgan Stanley analyst Chuck Phillips after he had a tete-a-tete over dinner with CEO Larry Ellison, who talked of weakness in the company's database business. Also, Ellison sold about 27 million shares, worth about $850 million, between Jan. 22 and Jan. 29, according to filings with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Networker Cisco(CSCO) continues to bleed, down 6% to $28.19. It was the most actively traded stock on the Nasdaq for the third straight day, and it hit a new 52-week low today. In a post-close announcement Tuesday, the company announced that it missed earnings targets for the first time in three years and gave a murky forecast for the future.

The ever-troubled communications-equipment maker Lucent(LU) took a beating, after the The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that it is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for possible fraudulent accounting practices. Regulators are looking at the company's booking sales procedures and software-licensing agreements. Specifically, the SEC is investigating whether Lucent improperly booked $679 million in revenue during its 2000 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. The stock was off 9.1% to $15.36.

But that news wasn't any huge surprise. Lucent already did its own investigation of the revenue booking and in December restated its financial results to eliminate the $679 million in revenue. And with so much bad news already priced into the stock, investors probably wonder how much further it can fall.

After five disappointing quarters, a string of high-level executive firings and a round of lower-level layoffs, the company's stock price is already down 78% from the highs of last year. TheStreet.com took a look at Lucent's approach to accounting early on, and has been following Lucent's other woes.

Finnish mobile-phone maker Nokia(NOK) was off 6.8% after UBS Warburg removed the mobile-phone giant from its list of top 10 global technology stock picks. That move helped put drag on the overseas markets, with Nokia falling 9% in Europe.

Also not looking good today was Power One(PWER), which makes power supply systems, on news that it was lowering its 2001growth estimates. The company cited slowing business and inventory reductions by its customers, particularly the aforementioned Cisco. It ended down 10.7% to $28.75.

One shining star was network storage systems maker Network Appliance(NTAP), which was up 8% to $38 after its earnings report last night. The bounce was a nice relief from the drag it experienced this week after being caught up in the Cisco conundrum.

The company reported fiscal third-quarter earnings that beat estimates after the market closed Thursday. But the company's sales came in a bit below forecasts, an uncharacteristic shortfall for a company well-positioned in one of the fastest growing technology markets. It is yet another sign that corporations aren't spending as freely on tech gear as they once were. TheStreet.com's Thomas Lepri took a look at what the report means for Network Appliance.

Meanwhile, the Dow was under pressure from Microsoft(MSFT), which took about 20 points away from the index. Yesterday, the software behemoth got a downgrade from Merrill Lynch with a warning about the maturing PC market.

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Sector Watch

Defensives relished this latest bit of weakness in tech stocks, with oil, tobacco and drug stocks bouncing.

Blue-chip ExxonMobil(XOM) was up 1.6% to $85.86. The stock's been beaten down in the past couple days, so the recovery was a nice breather for the stock. The American Stock Exchange Oil & Gas Index was 2.1% higher.

The American Stock Exchange Pharmaceutical Index was rising 0.5% and the American Stock Exchange Tobacco Index was lifting 1.4%.

There was one pocket of tech that wasn't being completely killed today. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index ended only 0.7% lower, despiote some positive help from Rambus(RMBS). The stock was getting a nice boost from news that Japanese company Toshiba will more than triple its output of Rambus DRAM chips, which use technology from Rambus that speeds up memory chip performance. The faster chips are twice the price of commodity DRAMs and are used by Sony(SNE) to make 3-D graphics for its PlayStation 2 and by Intel(INTC) for its new Pentium 4 microprocessor. Rambus was up 7.2%.

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Bonds/Economy

Treasury prices are up as weakness in equities has brought investors' focus back to notes and bonds. The money market is also consolidating after absorbing $32 billion in government debt that was auctioned over the last three days. The long end of the market is showing greater strength, with the 30-year up by half a point.

A $5 billion auction of three-year notes from Freddie Mac should keep the trading volume up today. Next week, $21 billion worth of three- and six-month Treasury bills will be sold.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note lately was up 15/32 to 99 25/32, lowering its yield to 5.028%.

Analysts will once again be hoping for Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan to hint of more rate cuts as he addresses the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday. In the wake of the Fed's two January cuts, the Bank of England cut interest rates yesterday and the Japanese central bank followed through with a cut overnight.

Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said in his round of conversations with television networks yesterday that he agrees with Greenspan's recent view that the economy is near zero growth. O'Neill estimates the present growth rate at 0.5% - 0 .6%. But he expressed confidence that technology-led productivity gains would take the nation to a "golden era of economic prosperity" as 80% of their contribution was still to be realized. His statements suggest that last quarter's higher-than-expected productivity gains amid a weakening economy were due to structural improvements in supply-chain management techniques.

There is no economic news today.

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