Preopen Trading: Stocks Look a Bit Weaker After Tuesday's Wild Run Up

Stocks look to open modestly weaker this morning as futures are pointing a bit lower.

After yesterday's wild run-up -- the Nasdaq posted its biggest one-day percentage gain and the Dow jumped by over 200 -- the early talk this morning was for some modest profit-taking.

While there are several economic numbers slated for release this morning, market watchers are looking more toward tomorrow and Friday for an indication of the Fed's next move. For a full list of releases, take a look at TSC's Economic Databank.

In early action, futures were lower this morning, but have come off their lows. The S&P 500 June contract was down 3.1, about 2.5 points below fair value. The Nasdaq 100 contract was off 37, suggesting some tech weakness at the open.

Yesterday was definitely tech's big day. But in preopening action, several of the names that ran up the most on Tuesday, were struggling. Qualcomm(QCOM), which gained over 10 yesterday, was off 3 1/4 to 73 1/8, according to Instinet. Dell(DELL) was off 1/8 to 43 3/4 and Intel(INTC) was sagging 1/4 to 125 1/2.

In overseas action, European trading was mixed despite an up day for the so-called TMT (technology, media and telecom) stocks. For more on the fun and games in Europe, take a look at TSC's European Midday Update.

Yesterday's After-Hours Trading

By Angela Privin
Staff Reporter

The Internet brain gain is on.

Even in this weight-obsessed country, a Web site called Fatbrain.com (FATB) is finding fans. The company announced after hours that it is likely to post higher-than-expected first-quarter revenue of $13.5 million to $14 million.

Strong demand for business-to-business products drove the company's vigorous growth. Investors ate up the news, and fatty gained weight. It was lately up 1 7/32 to 6 21/32 on 180,000 Island shares.

Companies such as Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL) and Hewlett-Packard (HWP) use Fatbrain.com to give employees access to a company-specific online bookstore. Ford (F) signed on today to launch a Fatbrain-sponsored online bookstore.

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Cookies aside, pursuit of Chinese fortunes drove tech companies in enigmatic directions. Business-to-business e-tailer Adatom.com (ADTM) suffered today after it announced a joint venture with China Federation of Industrial Economics. CFIE is a national organization that oversees and coordinates all Chinese trade associations, and is expecting to enlist 50,000 members for Adatom in its first year and 100,000 the following year. China Telecom (CHL) and China Broadcasting will also participate. This is the fourth Chinese joint venture for Adatom.com, which will help CFIE develop a bilingual, electronic marketplace and distribution system between China and the U.S.

Strangely, shares of the Internet company fell 3/32 to 1 7/8 on the news, recovered briefly in late composite trading and then sank again, dropping 1/16 to 2 1/16 on 285,000 Island shares.

Meanwhile, Qualcomm (QCOM) stumbled after China Unicom said that it would not adopt current-generation Qualcomm digital wireless technology.

But the ripple of bad news shook investor confidence only briefly. Analysts stepped in to defend the wireless darling, saying that despite this setback, the Chinese will begin to use Qualcomm-based CDMA wireless cellular technology.

After dropping midday, a recovery, perhaps aided by today's technology buying spree, helped Super Q finish with a healthy green glow. Bingeing traders sobered after hours and began to take profits. Qualcomm slipped 5/64 to 76 5/32 on 69,000 Island shares.

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Thomas Weisel Partners upgraded Spectra Diode Laboratories (SDLI) and it surged 12% after the company said that telecommunications networking giant JDS Uniphase(JDSU) extended its contract for parts through 2001. The growing demand for JDS Uniphase networks has doubled the need for SDL components used to build them. SDL's products power the transmission of data, voice and Internet information over fiber-optic networks.

Sometimes they're competitors, but a renewal of vows for this technology marriage meant day-session gains for both companies. At night, the wedding gifts went to JDS Uniphase, which rose 1 3/8 to 92 5/8 on 47,000 Island shares and 1 9/16 to 92 15/16 on 113,000 Instinet shares, while SDL fell 13/16 to 221 on 15,000 Island shares.

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Applied Materials (AMAT), a maker of semiconductor equipment, introduced a new product today and closed up 14.3%.

The company's new semiconductor product, the Sprint Tungsten CVD Centura, has features that lower the cost of system operation, including technology that generates no global-warming gases.

Light profit-taking took the California tech firm 1 3/64 lower to 83 57/64 on 48,000 Instinet shares.

10 most active stocks on Instinet (6:30 p.m. EDT)
Company	Price	Change	Session Volume
Cisco (CSCO)	59 61/64	+5/64	288,983
Yahoo! (YHOO)	116 31/32	-1/32	259,200
Microsoft (MSFT)	63 5/8	+1/4	127,123
General Motors (GMH)	97	-2	127,100
Ericsson (ERICY)	20 15/16	-1/16	117,600
JDS Uniphase (JDSU)	92 15/16	+1 9/16	113,400
Qualcomm (QCOM)	75 3/4	-5/8	108,200
Dell (DELL)	44 1/8	+1/8	95,264
General Motors (GM)	71 7/8	-5/16	95,100
Oracle (ORCL)	73 15/16	-1/4	94,320

This information is provided by Instinet, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reuters (RTRSY). For further information, please contact Instinet at www.instinet.com.

10 most active stocks on Island ECN (8 p.m. EDT)
Company	Price	Change	Session Volume
Adatom.com (ADTM)	2 1/16	-1/16	287,817
Fatbrain.com (FATB)	6 21/32	+1 17/32	183,858
Cisco (CSCO)	60	+1/16	90,929
Qualcomm (QCOM)	76 5/32	-5/64	69,993
JDS Uniphase (JDSU)	92 5/8	+1 3/8	46,985
Yahoo! (YHOO)	117 1/8	+1/8	37,231
BroadVision (BVSN)	39 5/16	+5/8	30,511
ZipLink (ZIPL)	5 3/16	-3/16	27,395
Ciena (CIEN)	122	+9/16	26,757
Corel (CORL)	3 1/4	+7/32	26,210

Island ECN, owned by Datek Online, offers trading, mainly in Nasdaq-listed stocks, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. EDT.

Confused? TheStreet.com explains how the rules change when the sun goes down in Investing Basics: Night Owl, a section devoted to after-hours trading.