Bill, what if another big hedge fund were to get into trouble?
-- U.S. tech stocks buckle =3 --
Tech stocks like Yahoo! Inc <YHOO.O>. have soared over the
past two weeks, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has
fallen.
Yahoo on Thursday fell 10-1/4 to 119-1/4 -- still almost 30
percent above its price of 90 on September 18. Similarly,
Amazon.com <AMZN.O> traded then at 80 and AOL changed hands at
98.
Traders suggested that fund managers may be selling tech
stocks that they were holding in their portfolios through the
just-completed third fiscal quarter.
"Maybe some fund managers wanted to show heavier weighting
in techs in the last quarter and now perhaps they feel freer to
sell them," Coolidge said.
"Starting early in the quarter, you (as a fund manager)
have freedom to do what you would like," added Harrington. "If
that is true, then they are voting today that they don't want
to be in the tech stocks in this quarter."
Other slumping tech stocks included PC maker Dell Computer
Inc. <DELL.O>, off 2-1/2 to 63-3/4 in afternoon trade, and
software maker Sterling Commerce Inc. <SE.N>, off 10-9/16 to
24-1/16.
Microsoft Corp.<MSFT.O> fell 4-1/16 to 106, chip maker
Intel Corp. <INTC.O> lost 2-3/4 to 83 and VERITAS Software
Corp. <VRTS.O> shed 5-1/4 to 50.
Ascend Communications Inc. <ASND.O> slipped to 41-5/8, off
3-7/8, while MindSpring Enterprises Inc. <MSPG.O> fell 3-5/8 to
37-7/8.
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