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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Impristine who wrote (51657)	4/19/1999 11:52:00 PM
From: 16yearcycle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Monday April 19, 9:28 pm Eastern Time Investors told to keep faith in volatile Internet stocks By Andrea Orr PALO ALTO, Calif., April 19 (Reuters) - If it looked like Monday was a bad day for the stock market, it was far worse for the growing number of Internet stocks. Amazon.com Inc (AMZN - news) tumbled more than $31 a share, Yahoo Inc (YHOO - news) was down more than $25 and scores of other companies that sell everything from airline tickets to Beanie Babies over the Internet went on sale themselves and saw their stock prices crumble. Virtually all of the stocks registering the biggest losses on the NASDAQ Exchange were Internet-related. Of them, the ten biggest decliners all shed more than $30 a share. Which led to the inevitable question: has the Internet stock bubble finally burst? The experts were quick to respond with a definitive, ''No.'' At least not yet. As Internet stocks suffer a series of rough trading days sending some shares more than $100 below recent highs, most analysts are gingerly sticking to their standard explanation that volatility is to be expected. They are urging investors not to lose faith -- or their stomachs. ''This is exactly what has happened every other quarter for the past eight quarters without fail,'' said BancBoston Robertson Stephens analyst Keith Benjamin. He said investors typically buy these stocks ahead of earnings reports, only to sell once the numbers -- however positive -- come out. The only difference this time around, say many analysts, is that stocks have risen to such high levels that even normal sell-offs look stupendous. ''Internet investing is tech investing on steroids,'' said Scott Rimer of Cowen and Co. ''Volatility is the name of the game. This is a difficult group to own and invest in, to understand and to stomach.'' If the cycle continues as it has in the past, analysts say, the stocks will recover, after a few of the undeserving ones have been weeded out. All bets are that Internet blue chips like America Online Inc. (AOL - news) will be the first to rebound. What is trickier, is predicting which stocks will be left behind. ''Everyone gets capitalized to the moon in the beginning, then some get wacked and never return,'' said Rimer. ''I don't necessarily have a read on which ones are done rebounding.''