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To: tonto who wrote (8697)	12/28/1998 4:27:00 PM
From: tonto	Respond to of 9343

Late afternoon reuters... Internet stocks surge as Web frenzy spreads NEW YORK, Dec 28 (Reuters) - The rally in Internet-related stocks continued on Monday, with the gains lifting shares in companies with ever looser ties to the World Wide Web. New additions to the feeding frenzy included SkyMall Inc. (Nasdaq:SKYM - news), a catalog company that mainly caters to airline passengers but does a small part of its sales on the Internet, and Active Apparel Group Inc. (Nasdaq:AAGP - news), a sportswear company whose shares soared nearly 600 percent after a Web site debut. The action was the latest sign that a company's quickest path to stock market favor is just a hint of a step toward becoming an Internet play. ''Right now, that seems to be all it takes,'' said Guy Truicko, portfolio manager at Unity Management. ''The stocks are going up like people aren't going to go to stores anymore.'' SkyMall shares were up $25.44 to $38 at midday, a gain of more than 200 percent that placed the company No. 2 among Nasdaq percentage gainers, behind only Active Apparel. SkyMall early Monday said its 1998 Internet sales rose some 600 percent from last year, to $2.1 million, although such sales comprised just 3 percent of its expected overall sales of $65 million. Active Apparel rocketed to $8.50, a gain of $7.25, or 580 percent, after the sportswear designer and marketer announced the debut of a Web retail site for its Everlast-brand clothing and a deal for the site to be linked to another Web site, Fashionmall.com. World Wide Web retailers like Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq:AMZN - news) again showed strength, with shares of the book, video and music online retailer surging $33.69 to $358.50. The gains extended a run for Internet retailers that lifted the group ahead of Christmas. ''Last week there was a positive feeling about Internet-related sales because people seemed to be getting more comfortable with making a purchase online,'' said Arthur Newman, an Internet analyst with Gerard Klauer Mattison in New York. Online investment firms also staged fierce rallies, with ETrade Group Inc. (Nasdaq:EGRP - news) up $13.25 to $58.25. The broker said its financial services Web site, Destination ETrade, had pulled in more than 500,000 members since its September launch. ''The rapid growth of membership on Destination ETrade underscores recognition among investors of the power of the Internet and online investing,'' Christos Cotsakos, Etrade president and chief executive, said in a statement. Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE:SCH - news), another Internet brokerage powerhouse, gained $6.69 to $67.06, a rise that analysts linked to the rally in E*trade. Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news), the Web portal that is the most visited site on the Internet, was up $30 to $277.125, while America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news), the world's biggest online services company, was up $12.375 to $149. As with each furious leg in the Internet rally, temptation built among some on Wall Street to test the resilience of the Internet stocks by perhaps selling into the rise. However, that tactic has produced more than a few wounds in the past. ''We're getting to the place where you have to think about taking the other side of this trade,'' either by taking profits or selling stocks short, Truicko said. ''But by the same token, I'm certainly not going to try to call the top of this thing.''