Investors are getting tired of losing money, according to some analysts, and that seems to be a reasonable opinion. Earnings warnings and the doom and gloom associated with not knowing when the economy will pick up the pace has taken its toll on investors who grew used to un-sustainable gains in the Internet/dot-com/VC capitalized boom of the late 90s. Lucent announced more layoffs today, Amazon announced that its own sales could slow further, and Alan Greenspan gave the Congress a big "I told you so" (for the record, he did in fact tell us so last year), and those events just sort of put investors off. From a Reuters report:
"Itis a horrible market," said Rich Levy, head of block trading at CIBC World Markets Inc. "No oneis buying into this thing. People are tired of loosing money, so theyire pulling out."
"Whatis the rush to buy any of these stocks if companies donit see a recovery in the next few quarters?" said Frank Gretz, a market analyst with brokerage Shields & Co. in New York. "Thereis been a change in perception. People are starting to give up on a turn in the economy."
Speaking of the Fed, Mr. Greenspan also suggested that more interest rate cuts may be in the offing, if needed. From our vantage point within the ivory-colored Mac Observer Towers, more cuts will indeed be needed.
The Dow and the Nasdaq traded in moderate volume and headed lower. The Dow traded more than 1.2 billion shares, and the Nasdaq traded more than 1.5 billion. Tech Stocks mostly closed down, and our own favorite computer company shed another 45 cents (more on that below).
Industry News
Microsoft is in for more fun and games with the Democrats back in charge of the Senate. Senator Patrick Leahy chairman of the Senate Judicial Committee, will be chairing the hearings, which will be looking into whether or not Windows XP represents a "grave threat" to consumers and competitors such as AOL, Kodak, and RealNetworks. The issue is Microsoftis plan for building products within Windows XP, making them the default choice for its customers. From a ZDNet report:
In the letter to Ballmer, Sen. Schumer demanded changes in Windows XP to open the software to competitors in instant messaging, audio and video software, digital photography and Internet service. He cited Microsoftis move two weeks ago to open Windows to rival Internet browsers, where little competition exists. "If PC makers and consumers can choose their browser in Windows XP, surely they should be able to choose their media player, messenger service and other applications," he said.
Reuters is reporting on IBMis efforts to bring Linux to the corporate desktop.
Apple Industry News
Apple opened up with a jittery start that saw it spend most of the morning barely in positive territory. As the day wore on, however, the stock started exploring new lands in negative territory and ended up closing just above 19 with another 45 cent loss. A rally in the last hour regained some 40 cents of additional loss. If the stock loses another 3-4 points, it will be butting up against support levels enforced by the companyis strong position in cash. Since July 17th, just ahead of the companyis quarterly report, when AAPL closed at 25.10, the stock has lost 6.01, or 23.94% of its value.
Apple closed at 19.09, a loss of 0.45 (-2.30%), on light volume of 6,211,600 shares trading hands.
The Nasdaq closed at 1959.24, down 29.32 (-1.47%), on volume of 1,598,894,000 trading hands.
The Dow closed at 10241.12, down 183.30 (-1.76%), on volume of 1,201,324,000 trading hands.
The S&P 500 closed at 1171.65, down 19.38 (-1.63%).
Adobe closed at 39.98, off by 0.61 (-1.50%), on strong volume of 4,074,000 shares trading hands.
Akamai closed at 8.03, down 12 cents (-1.47%), on light volume of 1,329,500shares trading hands. Apple is a large shareholder of Akamai.
Earthlink closed at 16.31, down 1.57 (-8.78%), on strong volume of 2,930,100 shares trading hands.
IBM closed at 104.51, off by 1.34 (-1.27%), on volume of 7,281,800 shares trading hands.
Macromedia closed at 16.20, down 1.11 (-6.41%), on volume of 983,400 shares trading hands.
Motorola closed at 17.40, down 0.65 (-3.60%), on light volume of 8,791,900 shares trading hands. Motorola manufactures the processors used in Appleis Macintosh line.
Dell closed at 26.61, up a nickel (+0.19%), on light volume of 18,975,200 shares trading hands.
Gateway closed at 9.99, down a nickel (-0.50%), on strong volume of 2,604,000 shares trading hands.
Intel closed at 28.88, down 0.12 (-0.41%), on light volume of 37,938,500 shares trading hands.
Microsoft closed at 66.32, down 0.77 (-1.15%), on light volume of 33,678,600 shares trading hands.
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