Stocks Remain Mostly Lower

The transportation sector is up anew.

Author:: Brian Louis
Publish date:: Apr 16, 1999 12:06 PM EDT

The small-cap

Russell 2000

was the only major market index in positive territory late this morning.

The Russell 2000 was up 3 to 421.

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

was down 8 to 10,455. The

S&P 500

was down 3 to 1320. The

Nasdaq Composite Index

was down 15 to 2507.

TheStreet.com Internet Sector

index was up 5 to 683.

Amazon.com

(AMZN) - Get Report

, an index component, meanwhile, hopped. It was up 20 7/16, or 12%, to 188 3/8, after

Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette

analyst Jamie Kiggen upgraded the stock to top pick from buy. Kiggen also raised his six- to 12-month price target on the stock to $280 from $190.

The upgrade and price target increase was "based on expected incremental revenue and gross margin expansion from Amazon's new auction business," wrote Kiggen in a report. "We believe there will be two or three consumer auction sites that wind up dominating the enormous ($35 billion in 2003) consumer auction category, and Amazon is likely to be one of them."

On the news, online auctioneers fell.

eBay

(EBAY) - Get Report

fell 5 5/8 to 174, while

Onsale

(ONSL)

tumbled 4 7/8, or 14%, to 30 1/4.

Onsale yesterday reported a first-quarter loss of 28 cents a share, including one-time items, vs. a loss of 22 cents a year ago. The company did not provide operating results excluding the charge.

Several brokerages downgraded the stock today.

TheStreet.com E-Commerce Index

was down 1 to 133.

Transportation stocks leapt again today. The

Dow Jones Transportation Average

was up 2%.

UAL

(UAL) - Get Report

, parent of

United Airlines

, led the transportation average higher, up 3 7/8 to 81 5/8.

The 30-year Treasury bond was down 11/32 to 95 21/32, yielding 5.55%.

On the

New York Stock Exchange

, advancers were beating decliners 1,808 to 1,037 on 453 million shares. On the

Nasdaq Stock Market

, winners were beating losers 1,872 to 1,696 on 462 million shares.

On the NYSE, 71 issues had set new 52-week highs while 16 had touched new lows. On the Nasdaq, 54 issues had set new highs while new lows totaled 40.

Tech Focus

The

Nasdaq 100

was down 1%, while the

Morgan Stanley High-Tech 35

was down fractionally. The

Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index

was down 1%, while the

Philadelphia Stock Exchange Computer Box Maker Index

was down 3%.

On the Big Board, most active was

America Online

(AOL)

, with 10 million shares changing hands. It was up 4 3/8 to 148 1/4. AOL plans to unveil shortly its first wave of Internet-friendly devices that don't require personal computers,

The Wall Street Journal

reported. In the next several weeks, AOL, the nation's largest online service, is expected to introduce a variety of gadgets, including a screen phone, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the company's plans.

On the Nasdaq, most active was

Sun Microsystems

(SUNW) - Get Report

, with 16.5 million shares changing hands. It was down 4 5/16, or 7%, to 56 1/4. Sun after the close posted third-quarter earnings of 71 cents a share, a penny ahead of the 21-analyst

First Call

consensus.

Merrill Lynch

downgraded Sun to near-term accumulate from near-term buy.

Inktomi was up sharply in part in the wake of its Wall Street-beating second-quarter earnings report yesterday.

TheStreet.com

wrote about the results in a story

last night. The stock was up 14 13/16, or 12%, to 134.

Inktomi was also in the news today.

CyberShop International

(CYSP)

, an online retailer, set a marketing pact with Inktomi, a developer of Internet infrastructure software, to incorporate its products into the

Inktomi Shopping Engine

11:14 a.m.: Stocks Mostly Lower but Market Internals Positive

Market internals were positive despite weakness in most of the market's major gauges, as the titans of the

Nasdaq Composite Index

fell.

The Nasdaq Comp was down 21 to 2501. Nasdaq Comp heavyweights

Microsoft

(MSFT) - Get Report

Intel

(INTC) - Get Report

Dell

(DELL) - Get Report

Cisco

(CSCO) - Get Report

and

MCI WorldCom

(WCOM)

were all lower.

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

was down 26 to 10,437.

The

S&P 500

was down 5 to 1318.

The small-cap

Russell 2000

was up 2 to 420.

TheStreet.com Internet Sector

index was up 1 at 679. Going against the downdraft in Net stocks was

Amazon.com

(AMZN) - Get Report

, an index component. It was up 19, or 11%, to 187 1/8, after

Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette

analyst Jamie Kiggen upgraded the stock to top pick from buy. Kiggen also raised his six- to 12-month price target on the stock to $280 from $190.

TheStreet.com E-Commerce Index

was down 1 to 132.

The 30-year Treasury bond was down 9/32 to 95 24/32, yielding 5.55%.

Cyclicals were higher, but the gains have been much more modest than the sector has enjoyed in other sessions this week as money shifted from long in-favor sectors into long-shunned sectors, like cyclicals. The

Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index

was up fractionally.

The big question before the market now is whether the shift this week into cyclicals is for real and sustainable, said Paul Cherney, market analyst at

S&P MarketScope

. Cherney expects next week that cyclicals will have to do some digestion of their recent sharp gains. He noted that part of the surge in the stocks this week was due to short-term momentum players "jumping on the bandwagon."

Cherney said there will probably more unwinding to go in the big-cap high-techs, which he expects will be a "slow process."

Volume has been heavier this week than in a while.

Cherney said he's forced by historical precedent to view it as a positive for the market. He said there's a floor of buying interest underneath the market.

On the

New York Stock Exchange

, advancers were beating decliners 1,702 to 1,005 on 319 million shares. On the

Nasdaq Stock Market

, winners were beating losers 1,700 to 1,683 on 338 million shares.

On the NYSE, 58 issues had set new 52-week highs while 12 had touched new lows. On the Nasdaq, 47 issues had set new highs while new lows totaled 34.

On the Big Board,

America Online

(AOL)

was most active, with 8 million shares changing hands. It was up 2 3/4 to 146 5/8.

On the Nasdaq,

Sun Microsystems

(SUNW) - Get Report

was most active, with 15 million shares changing hands. It was down 4 3/4 to 55 3/4. Sun reported third-quarter earnings of 71 cents a share, a penny ahead of the 21-analyst

First Call

consensus.

Merrill Lynch

downgraded Sun to near-term accumulate from near-term buy.

10:06 a.m.: Stocks Stumble in Early Trading

That didn't take long.

After opening slightly higher, the market's major gauges quickly reversed course and within roughly 10 minutes after the opening bell, all the widely watched averages were in negative territory.

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

was down 45 to 10,418. The

S&P 500

was down 6 to 1317.

The

Nasdaq Composite Index

was down 23 to 2499. The

Russell 2000

was down fractionally at 418.

TheStreet.com Internet Sector

index was down 6 to 672, while

Amazon.com

(AMZN) - Get Report

, an index component, bucked the trend and soared. It was up 18 1/8, or 11%, to 182 1/8 after

Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette

analyst Jamie Kiggen upgraded the stock to top pick from buy. Kiggen also raised his six-to-12-month price target on the stock to $280 from $190.

Meanwhile,

TheStreet.com E-Commerce Index

was down 1 to 133.

The 30-year Treasury bond was down 9/32 to 95 22/32, yielding 5.55%.

Most Up at Open -- NYSE

Eastman Kodak (EK) , up 3 13/16 to 70 3/8

: The company posted first-quarter earnings of 80 cents a share, excluding a charge, beating the

First Call

11-analyst estimate of 76 cents, and up from the year-ago 73 cents, which excludes a charge. Kodak posted first-quarter sales of $3.1 billion, up 6% from the year-ago period. Strong volume gains for consumer film in the U.S. and worldwide and a return to sales growth in a number of emerging markets boosted sales, Kodak said.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter

upgraded Kodak to outperform from neutral.