Bloody Mary Serves Up Another Net Selloff
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.