Bloody Mary Serves Up Another Net Selloff

Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker sees more weakness ahead.

Author:: David Shabelman
Publish date:: May 26, 1999 10:57 AM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO -- It looked like maybe the carnage was done. And then Xena the Warrior Princess rode into town and chopped the dead into little pieces.

Internet stocks were on the mend this morning before

CNBC

reported that

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter

Internet analyst Mary Meeker (dubbed the Internet queen) told salespeople there still could be some weakness ahead. Meeker noted that there are 63 deals still to come in the Internet arena and reportedly forecast that

TheStreet.com Internet Sector

index could go to the 450 level. It was off 1% at about 545.

CMGI

(CMGI)

was off 2 1/2, or 1%, at 189 after hitting an early high of 196 1/8.

eBay

(EBAY) - Get Report

was off 8 7/16, or 5%, at 155 1/2.

CNet

(CNET) - Get Report

was down 6 1/2, or 7%, at 91, following its addition in the

Nasdaq 100

index Tuesday. As

TSC's

James Cramer

reported, there was a huge sale of the

QQQ

index of Nasdaq 100 stocks late Tuesday.

Online brokerages were getting hurt as well on the prospect that a bear market will dampen trading volumes.

Ameritrade

(AMTD) - Get Report

was down 4 7/8, or 5.5%, at 77; it's now nearly 60% off its 52-week high.

E*Trade

(EGRP)

was off 3 5/16, or 7%, at 41 3/4.

DLJDirect

(DIR:NYSE), the online brokerage unit of

Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette

(DLJ)

, begins trading today. It was priced Tuesday at $20.

Set to go public on the Net today are

Juno Online Services

(JWEB:Nasdaq), which offers free email service and was priced at $13 a share, and

StarMedia Networks

, a Latin American-geared portal, which last evening was priced at $15 a share.

In the broader tech arena,

Oracle

(ORCL) - Get Report

was lower after

Credit Suisse First Boston

cut its fiscal 1999 earnings estimate to 82 cents a share from 85 cents and its fiscal year 2000 earnings estimate to 97 cents from $1.02. Analyst Wendell Laidley noted that the "pipeline remains strong, but weaker-than-expected close rates in both database and applications lead us to take a more cautious short-term stance." Laidley lowered his 12-month price target to 32 from 39, though he maintained a buy rating on the stock. Oracle was down 1 1/4, or 5%, at 22 3/4.

Mindspring Enterprises

(MSPG)

was up 1 1/4, or 2%, at 70 1/4 after the Internet service provider said late Tuesday it would split its stock 2-for-1.