Not a bad showing
Investors turned
the other cheek to a fourth straight day of higher bond yields
Thursday, marking up technology shares across a broad swath.Â
The semis, which had lost about 15% in
the six days ended Monday showed the best tone…the hardwares also acted well,
as did the Nets. Â
Not a bad showing considering a 25/32
drawdown in the bond contract. The Long One sits precariously close to its
recent high yield of 6.39%:Â
Fed worries linger: Fed funds contracts
discount a 90% chance of a tightening at the Feb. 1-2 confab–last Friday it was
a hair over 60%.
Meanwhile, the financials incurred minor losses.
Elsewhere, the speculative growth stock
glamours traded higher: Answerthink [ANSR>ANSR], up 7%, looks interesting, as
it nears the top of a nine-month cup-with-handle base…Ariba [ARBA>ARBA], up
6%, is clinging near its old highs…CNET [CNET>CNET], up 4%, shows good
accumulation, but is extended by >10% from its recent base…Epiphany
[EPNY>EPNY] crept to new high ground, up 12%, but volume was <
average…Go2Net [GNET>GNET] stayed wild for the fourth day–the range was
wide, the volume heavy.
The Internet
bellwethers were a disappointment: AOL [AOL>AOL] surrendered
4%, closing in the bottom quintile of the day’s range, and on its most active trade in the last dozen days…Amazon [AMZN>AMZN] also plodded lower…both stocks saw their recent
breakouts fail…Though Yahoo! [YHOO>YHOO] rose 4%, it did so on the lightest
volume in the past 13 sessions–this after coming under moderate distribution
Tuesday and Wednesday…eBay [EBAY>EBAY] advanced for just the second time in
nine days after seeing its Nov. 23 breakout fail on Tuesday…CMGI was a lone
bright spot among blue-chip Nets, up 12%–but it finished an inch above the
bottom of its range after gapping at the open on word of a less-than-forecast
quarterly loss.
Among benchmark
techs, Microsoft [MSFT>MSFT] continued to impress, up for the
sixth day–turnover was far above average for the third session…
At press time, Kevin N. Marder held a
long position in AOL.