A spotty showing
Though
tech sector gauges rebounded decently Wednesday, a closer look
beneath the surface revealed a spotty showing at best.
For dense gains in Microsoft,
Intel, Oracle, and Motorola had the effect of inflating
sector barometers, while winners and losers ended about even among other
computer-related bellwethers…A similar situation was seen in the semis…None
of this is surprising as buysiders re-jigger portfolios to make year-end
statements look their best…Jockeying ahead of Friday’s triple-witch also
muddied the waters.
…As well, cybershares,
underperformers on the day, lagged more noticeably in the final hour as players
sauntered to the exits…the same situation occurred in the financials, which
went out at their lows in tandem with the 13/32-loss in the bond
contract…Blue-chip Nets, like CMGI, DoubleClick, eBay,
and Yahoo!, moved lower on a rise in volume.
A few positives did emerge in tech:
Oracle [ORCL>ORCL] was the Star of the Day, up 17% on volume about
triple its average…also encouraging was Microsoft [MSFT>MSFT], which
burst out of a five-month base–volume was more than twice its norm for the
second day…in addition, Intel [INTC>INTC] rang up a 9% win on its
heaviest trade in over a month…
A few top-performers of late stood out
from the pack, like Go2Net, and JDS Uniphase. But many more
leaders saw red: EPiphany, Expedia, Ariba, Broadbase, I Manage, Liberate,
Netobjects, Netscout, Proxicom, Quintus, and Retek, among a host of
others.
For now, all eyes remain on the bond. If
its yield continues to ramp up, the position trader will have to make more tough
decisions as to what stocks to lock in gains on.
This as more of the original leaders out
of the Oct. 18 gate begin to break down.