Nasdaq can't catch break
Another day, another losing session as Wall St. awaits third-quarter results
October 9, 2000: 4:08 p.m. ET
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The Nasdaq composite index fell the sixth time in seven sessions Monday amid continued worries about slowing profit growth.
Rising oil prices and a fresh round of earnings warnings hit a nervous market that has fallen steadily since September. Still, technology stocks ended well off their worst levels of the day ahead of the first busy week for companies reporting third-quarter financial results.
"You can feel some buying interest come in," Brian Finnerty, head of Nasdaq trading at C.E. Unterberg Towbin, told CNNf's Market Coverage. "We're stating to see some buying because we've been hit very hard."
Finnerty said he expects stocks to rise on the week's earnings reports that, despite the nervousness, are expected to show solid year-to-year gains.
"I think you're better off being a buyer than a seller," Finnerty said.
But gains to Yahoo!, which reports quarterly profits Tuesday, could not offset losses to Cisco Systems and Intel, two of Nasdaq's biggest movers. Those stocks are trading near their lowest of the year.
Those losses weighed on the Nasdaq, which fell 5.88 points to 3,355.13, according to preliminary figures. That's well above the index's 128-point plunge earlier in the session, a plunge that put the Nasdaq less than 70 points above its lowest close of the year, 3,164.55 on May 23.
The Dow Jones industrial average, meanwhile, shed 27.37 to 10,571.75, while the S&P 500 fell 6.85 to 1,402.14.
Trading volume was light with many market participants taking the day off for the Columbus Day and Yom Kippur holiday. The U.S. bond market was closed.
More stocks fell than rose. On the New York Stock Exchange, declining issues outpaced advancing ones 1,585 to 1,184 as more than 693 million shares changed hands. On the Nasdaq, losers beat winners 2,460 to 1,433 on volume of more than 1.3 billion shares.
In currency markets, the dollar was little changed against the euro and yen.
Here's a look at market action just before 3 p.m. ET.
Tech selling continues
Investors Monday remained nervous about technology stocks whose prices, though depressed, still are lofty relative to other sectors. A series of corporate warnings that have plagued Wall Street continued.
In the latest, chip equipment maker Electroglas (EGLS: Research, Estimates) fell $1.38 to $14.88 after saying third-quarter earnings will be 49 cents to 52 cent per share, below estimates of 58 cents.
And Williams-Sonoma (WSM: Research, Estimates) tumbled $8 to $18.88 after the specialty retailer of kitchenware said it expects third-quarter earnings to miss expectations because of weak catalog sales and higher advertising costs.
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Click here for an up-to-date look at results warnings.
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Nasdaq's biggest movers, many of which are near their lowest levels of the year, kept falling. Cisco Systems (CSCO: Research, Estimates) declined $2.25 to $53.94, Sun Microsystems (SUNW: Research, Estimates) lost $1.50 to $106 and Intel (INTC: Research, Estimates) shed 69 cents to $39.25.
Yahoo! (YHOO: Research, Estimates), which reports third-quarter earnings after the close of trading Tuesday, rose $1 to $82.25. The leading Internet portal is expected to post a profit of 12 cents a share, well above the 7 cents earned in the year-ago period.
"Generally speaking, I still think the earnings are going to be OK in this period," Robert Morris, director of equity at Lord Abbett & Co., told CNNfn's Talking Stocks.
Still, the number of negative corporate pre-announcements stands at 351, 25 percent ahead of the 281 at roughly the same time last year, according to First Call/Thomson Financial.
Amid these announcements, the Nasdaq has fallen 19 percent this year and more than 8 percent last week.
In another negative, oil prices, whose recent gains have meant steeper costs for business and consumers, rose again Monday. Oil futures advanced 58 cents to $31.44 a barrel.
Still, one bright spot lies ahead. Companies this week begin posting results for the July-September period in earnest, meaning the bulk of warnings are over.
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Click here for a list of upcoming earnings reports.
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And investors found places to hide Monday, rewarding many stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average. The 30-stock index, though down this year, has outperformed the Nasdaq. DuPont (DD: Research, Estimates) gained 50 cents to $45.06, Exxon Mobil (XOM: Research, Estimates) rose $1.56 to $91 and Eastman Kodak (EK: Research, Estimates) jumped $1 to $40.38.
Among other big gainers, Electronic Data Systems (EDS: Research, Estimates) surged$4.56 to $45.19 after the Navy awarded the company a $6.94 billion contract to build and maintain a department-wide Navy-Marine Corps intranet.
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