Nothin’ But Net
As if presaging how Americans will be spending their time now that summer
has drawn to an end, Internet-related ETFs logged-on to healthy gains
Thursday and looked over their shoulder as other tradeable tech funds made a
half-hearted effort at duplicating the Nets’ boot-up. Basic industries and
the Swiss ETF fell, underscoring problems associated with all-time lows in
Europe’s single currency, but money flow remained otherwise stagnant as the
preponderance of funds drifted listlessly in horizontal trade.
Noting that the division would help “sharpen its
customer focus,” broadband gear maker Conextant
(
CNXT |
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would spin off its Internet infrastructure business. The announcement
spurred a 41% gain in the stock, making it by far the best performing stock
in the Broadband HOLDRs
(
BDH |
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best of the session.
Conextant’s division and new focus on Net
infrastructure heightened hopes among Internet Infrastructure HOLDRs
(
IIH |
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components, leading the ETF to the best gains of the group. Inktomi
(
INKT |
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was the bell of the ball here. Traders had another reason to vote their
approval after the Net software said it would purchase FastForward Networks.
The acquisition resulted in shares being bid 13 1/4 higher to 122. The move
is seen as a step in the right evolutionary direction for the Internet, a
move that will provide INKT with the architecture to offer “live
streaming” media. Kana
(
KANA |
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(
VITR |
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here with performances exceeding 9%, which boosted the IIH to a 4% gain.
One of the leaders in the business-to-business (B2B)
e-commerce space, Ariba
(
ARBA |
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good news in the Net area to lead the B2B Internet HOLDRs
(
BHH |
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second best finish among ETFs, up 4%.Â
Despite the robust action in the Nets, no ETF made
convincing progress toward a breakout and most are still base-building or
remain range-bound.
On the downside, two
more corporate giants, McDonalds
(
MCD |
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(
PG |
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came forth Thursday and as much as admitted they mis-managed
foreign treasury departments by allowing foreign exchange exposure to
translate into lower earnings. Du Pont
(
DD |
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sessions ago with a similar warning and was punished again in the Basic
Industries Select SPDR
(
XLB |
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PowerRating). Other cyclicals in the SPDR sporting
potentially unhedged foreign currency exposure also suffered and doubt in
the group resulted in a nearly 2% loss for the XLB.