Tech Stocks Get Slammed

Oracle's weakness weighs on the tech sector, and the Dow also was lower.

Author:: Brian Louis
Publish date:: Mar 12, 1999 12:09 PM EST

Technology stocks were getting crushed, while

Caterpillar

(CAT) - Get Report

and

IBM

(IBM) - Get Report

weighed on the blue-chip

Dow Jones Industrial Average

Weakness in the tech sector was blamed in part on

Oracle

(ORCL) - Get Report

, which was down 8 3/8, or 23%, to 28 1/2. More on Oracle below.

The

Nasdaq Composite Index

was down 48 to 2365.

The Dow was down 28 to 9870. Caterpillar was down 5 1/8, or 10%, to 45 3/4, after issuing an earnings warning. IBM was down 4 3/16 to 178 11/16.

The

S&P 500

was down 8 to 1290. The small-cap

Russell 2000

was down 3 to 398.

TheStreet.com Internet Sector

index was down 23 to 561.

TheStreet.com E-Commerce Index

was down 4 to 104.

The 30-year Treasury bond was up 10/32, to 95 23/32, yielding 5.55%.

Oil service stocks gained -- but were off their highs -- on news that key oil producing countries agreed to cut output by 2 million barrels a day. The

Philadelphia Stock Exchange Oil Service Index

was up 2%.

One of the prominent losers in the market today has been

Rite Aid

(RAD) - Get Report

, which was down 14 7/16, or 39%, to 22 9/16 after the company issued an earnings warning.

On the

New York Stock Exchange

, decliners were beating advancers 1,459 to 1,223 on 366 million shares. On the

Nasdaq Stock Market

, losers were beating winners 2,075 to 1,303 on 442 million shares.

On the NYSE, 52 issues had set 52-week lows while 47 had touched new highs. On the Nasdaq, 48 issues had set new lows while new highs totaled 35.

On the Big Board,

Compaq

(CPQ)

was most active, with 12.2 million shares changing hands. It was up 5/8 to 30 7/8.

Tech Focus

The major tech gauges were lower. The

Nasdaq 100

was down 2.1%, while the

Morgan Stanley High-Tech 35

was down 2.8%. The

Philadelphia Stock Exchange Computer Box Maker Index

was down 2.3%. The

Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index

was down 3.2%.

Oracle

yesterday reported third-quarter earnings of 20 cents a share, a penny better than the

First Call

29-analyst estimate and up from the year-ago 14 cents. However, analysts expressed concern over the company's revenue growth. Oracle was most active on the Nasdaq on volume of 60 million. A slew of analysts downgraded the stock today.

Tech bellwethers

Cisco

(CSCO) - Get Report

Intel

(INTC) - Get Report

Microsoft

(MSFT) - Get Report

and

Dell

(DELL) - Get Report

were lower. Cisco was down 2 5/16 to 103 3/16; Microsoft was down 3 1/8 to 158 1/4; Intel was unchanged at 118 1/8; and Dell was down 9/16 to 41 3/8.