The Night Watch: FuelCell, Other Energy Plays Suffer a Meltdown
Stocks were mixed in the extended session tonight as investors made some bets on tech but sold off on companies that made the late wires.
In particular, the energy technology sector lost steam tonight. Alternative fuel company
FuelCell Energy
(FCEL) - Get Report
, which develops electrochemical technologies that generate electricity without combustion, recently weakened on both
Instinet
and
Island
ECN. The shares finished at $80.58, off 5.4%, during regular trading on the
Nasdaq. In recent action on Instinet, FuelCell slipped 8.0% to $74.16, while on Island, they fell 6.8% to $73.74.
The company, which is based in Danbury, Conn., did not release any official statements today, but according to
Briefing.com
, a brokerage firm is pricing a secondary stock offering of three million shares of the company at $72.50 per share. Company representatives could not be reached for comment.
Energy technology stocks have recently gotten a boost from the nation's energy crisis and the companies' promises to deliver on greater fuel efficiency and clean power generation. Besides FuelCell,
Millennium Cell
(MCEL)
was also apparently the subject of some profit taking tonight, losing 15.7% to $9.70 on Instinet after gaining 8.0% during the day's trading.
Ballard Power Systems
(BLDP) - Get Report
slipped 1.0% to $52.10 on Island.
Among other sell-offs,
Remec
(REMC)
, a maker of high frequency wireless voice and data transmission infrastructure equipment, fell 10% to $7.75 on Instinet after posting a wider-than-expected loss for its first quarter amid soft demand in the telecom equipment sector.
And
EchoStar Communications
(DISH) - Get Report
, the arch-rival of
DirectTV
, which is owned by
Hughes Electronics
(GMH)
, lately fell 3.8% to $28.55. Hughes, a unit of
General Motors
(GM) - Get Report
, warned after the bell that new subscribers to its DirecTV satellite service would fall sharply below previous estimates in its fiscal second quarter, amid the softening U.S. economy and slower growth in its rural subscriber base.
Engage
(ENGA)
gained 15.5% to $1.49 on Island after the marketing software firm reported a third-quarter loss in line with analysts' expectations. Nevertheless, the company cut its fourth-quarter forecast, citing continued woes in the Internet ad market.
And
NaviSite
(NAVI) - Get Report
, another beaten-down stock, soared 45.1% to $3.12 on its third-quarter earnings report. The company, which offers Web hosting, server and application services, to corporations, reported a wider third-quarter loss but projected a narrower-than-expected shortfall in its fourth quarter.
Meanwhile, big-tech outfits were enjoying some reprieve from the selloff in the regular trading session.
Cisco Systems
(INTC) - Get Report
, the most heavily traded stock on
Instinet
, lately inched up 0.5% to $20.49, while fellow networker
Juniper Networks
(JNPR) - Get Report
, gained 0.1% to $35.38. Juniper's
early-morning warning last Friday spooked investors into a confession-related selloff.
Chip leader
Intel
(INTC) - Get Report
and
Oracle
(ORCL) - Get Report
were also walking in positive ground tonight.
Island ECN offers trading mainly in Nasdaq-listed stocks, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST.
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.