eBay Soars on Addition to Nasdaq 100; After-Hours Trading Update

eBay (EBAY) roared up 7 15/16 to 147 in after-hours Island ECN trading on news that it will join the Nasdaq 100 Oct. 6. eBay, whose market capitalization is about $17.7 billion, will replace Centocor (CNTO), which Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) is acquiring. The Nasdaq 100 is an index of the 100 largest nonfinancial stocks on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

---

Broadband provider CAIS Internet (CAIS) will announce Thursday that Qwest Communications (QWST) is investing $15 million in the company at a price of $12 a share. CAIS closed Wednesday at 11, down 1/4.

In addition, CAIS, which provides the hardware, software, and connectivity for hotels and apartment communities, will also announce that it will purchase 44 million IRUs, or bandwidth units, from Qwest, said Gary Rabin, company executive vice president of finance and strategic planning, at the Volpe Brown Whelan Internet & Communications conference Wednesday. That basically means that CAIS will have the right to that dedicated amount of bandwidth for 20 years, Rabin said.

CAIS announced earlier Wednesday that it signed an agreement with Bass Hotels & Resorts (BAS). The deal lets CAIS install its high-speed Internet access products in an initial 60 Staybridge Suites by Holiday Inn properties. CAIS Internet will hook up an initial 6,700 units in 60 cities nationwide.

The company already has arrangements with Hilton (HLT), Radisson and others, and has its service available in 887 hotels and more than 200,000 rooms in the U.S.

-- Suzanne Galante

After-Hours Markets

Amazon.com (AMZN) led both MarketXT and Island ECN in after-hours trading. How heavy was the volume in the online retailer? Yesterday's volume leader on Island was Medscape (MSCP) with 97,830 shares. Tonight, Amazon is almost double that.

10 most active stocks on Island ECN (8 p.m. EDT)
Name	Price	Change	Session Volume
Amazon.com (AMZN)	81	+3/16	190,908
Excite@Home (ATHM)	44 3/16	+13/16	37,056
Knight/Trimark Group (NITE)	31 1/8	+5/16	26,916
E*Trade (EGRP)	25 1/2	+7/16	22,836
AmeriTrade (AMTD)	19 13/16	+11/16	22,196
Fonix (FONX)	11/32	0	21,600
FTD.com (EFTD)	8 31/32	+11/32	18,100
CMGI (CMGI)	100 5/16	+3/16	16,598
Dell (DELL)	42 9/16	0	16,530
InterNAP Network Services (INAP)	53	+1/8	16,290

Island ECN, owned by Datek Online, offers trading, mainly in Nasdaq-listed stocks, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EDT. Prior to Sept. 15 Island offered trading from 8 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. EDT.

10 most active stocks on MarketXT (8 p.m. EDT)
Name	Price	Change		Session Volume
Amazon.com (AMZN)	80 1/2	0	0%	750
Excite@Home (ATHM)	43 11/16	+1/4	+0.6%	700
Exxon (XON)	74 7/8	+1/8	+0.2%	700
eBay (EBAY)	146	+7	+5.0%	650
Novell (NOVL)	20 1/4	=3/16	-0.9%	600
IBM (IBM)	120 5/16	+1/4	+0.2%	400
Hewlett-Packard (HWP)	89 5/16	+1/16	+0.1%	400
MCI WorldCom (WCOM)	72 9/16	-1/16	-0.1%	250
Tellabs (TLAB)	56 7/8	+1/4	+0.4%	200
Cisco Systems (CSCO)	66 7/8	+1/16	+0.1%	200

MarketXT, formerly Eclipse Trading, offers after-hours trading to retail clients of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's (MWD) Discover Brokerage and Mellon Bank's (MEL) Dreyfus Brokerage Services. Clients can trade 200 of the most actively traded New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market issues, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. EDT Monday through Thursday.

TheStreet.com updates the most active issues on both MarketXT and Island ECN in Got a Minute? and in the Evening Update.

-- Eric Gillin

Major Indices INDEX CHANGE % VALUE YR TO DATE Dow -62.05 -0.60% 10,213.48 +11.2% S&P 500 -13.83 -1.08% 1268.37 +3.2% Nasdaq -25.99 -0.94% 2730.26 +24.5% Russell 2000 3.03 0.72% 421.52 -0.1% TSC Internet 12.19 1.92% 643.49 +58.3% BOND CHANGE PRICE YIELD 30-Year Treasury -15/32 100 1/32 6.122%

In other postclose news (earnings estimates from First Call/Thomson Financial; earnings reported on a diluted basis unless otherwise specified):

Earnings/revenue reports and previews

AGL (ATG) said the $25 million sale of its stake in Sonat Power and Marketing would result in a fourth-quarter pretax gain of roughly $20 million.

Allegiance Telecom (ALGX) said it anticipates third-quarter revenue between $30 million to $31 million, greatly beating the year-ago revenue report of $2.8 million.

AutoZone (AZO) posted fourth-quarter earnings of 67 cents a share, in line with the 14-analyst estimate of 67 cents, and beating the year-ago 60 cents.

CellStar (CLST) reported third-quarter earnings of 25 cents a share, missing the five-analyst estimate of 27 cents but up from the year-ago 14 cents.

CompUSA (CPU) said its first-quarter same-store sales declined 2% to $1.36 billion, down from the year-ago $1.39 billion. The computer retailer blamed the decline on slowness in its direct sales, related technical services and technology training sales. Compared with a year ago, direct sales slipped 14% to $410 million, while technical services and training sales fell 8% to $30 million and 14% to $23 million respectively. In addition, the company said that comparable same-store sales for 195 stores in business a year or more stumbled 0.3%.

Flowers (FLO) warned investors that it would post third-quarter earnings below the 10-analyst estimate of 20 cents a share, citing its Mrs. Smith's Bakeries subsidiary's weak sales and ongoing costs as a cause for the disappointing results. The company holds a 55% interest in Keebler Foods (KBL).

Keystone Financial (KSTN) said it expects to post fiscal 1999 earnings of $1.90 a share, missing both the six-analyst estimate of $2.03 and the year-ago $1.92. The company blamed softness in its retail loans and increasing costs for the disappointing earnings.

Morrison Knudsen (MK) posted third-quarter earnings of 23 cents a share, in line with the five-analyst estimate and beating the year-ago 18 cents.

Personnel Group of America (PGA) said it is on track to post third-quarter earnings in line with the 11-analyst estimate of 25 cents a share. In addition, the company said it set a $30 million share-repurchasing plan.

Rexall Sundown (RXSD) posted fourth-quarter earnings of 21 cents a share, in line with the nine-analyst estimate of 21 cents and up from the year-ago 28 cents.

Rite Aid (RAD) said September same-store sales were boosted 8.3% by pharmacy same-store sales growth of 16.7%.

RTI International Metals (RTI) warned investors that it expects to report a third-quarter loss of 7 cents to 12 cents a share, after it assumes a $1 million to $1.5 million charge for new product development and slow oil and gas exploration markets. The two-analyst consensus estimate expects the company to post earnings of 14 cents a share, lower than the year-ago 76 cents a share.

Sara Lee (SLE) posted first-quarter earnings of 28 cents a share, beating both the 13-analyst estimate of 26 cents and the year-ago 25 cents.

WD-40 (WDFC) posted fourth-quarter earnings of 44 cents a share, beating both the single-analyst estimate of 42 cents and the year-ago 40 cents a share.

Offerings and stock actions

Extreme Networks (EXTR) said it has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an offering of 6.5 million common shares.

Credit Suisse First Boston priced a 5.5 million-share IPO for Tivo (TIVO:Nasdaq) above-range at $16 per share.

Miscellany

Consol Energy (CNX) said it would shut down three coal mines, which are used as a resource for the Keystone power plant in western Pennsylvania, while continuing to operate a West Virginia mine for at least two months. The closings, which are set to occur in early December, will leave 560 employees out of work. Consol spokesman Thomas Hoffman said the company has forge an agreement with the power plants owners including Conectiv (CIV), GPU (GPU), PECO Energy (PE) and Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG) to supply the facility with coal from other mines that are cheaper to operate.

Nextlink (NXLK) announced the departure of President and COO George Tronsrue. The company said Tronsrue resigned from the company to "pursue other career opportunities."

Union Pacific (UNP) trucking division Overnite Transportation said workers have filed another petition with the National Labor Relations Board to ax the Teamsters as their current negotiating representative. The NLRB said that workers at 10 facilities have filed 13 decertification petitions in the last two years. Overnite said one of the key issues dividing the union and the company is the Teamsters insistence that the workers swap their wholly funded pension plan for the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund.

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints