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

To: MSI who wrote (58440)	5/25/1999 4:03:00 PM
From: Don Westermeyer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

<..I've been 90% cash for three days..> I sold out a couple of months ago and went short a few select stocks (like AMZN). I have recently been buying into REITs and other lower risk investments. My plan was to cover AMZN on the B&N i-nut IPO. I may wait a few more days now though.

To: MSI who wrote (58440)	5/25/1999 4:05:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

DLJdirect News Alert! triggered at 03:51 PM for symbol: AOL Battered Internets have room to fall, analysts say Battered Internets have room to fall, analysts say By Ian Simpson NEW YORK, May 25 (Reuters) - Battered Internet shares still have room to fall as the once high-flying sector tumbles amid fears about interest rates and valuations, analysts said Tuesday. Even as Internet stocks ticked lower and a market watcher warned about investors borrowing money to buy Internet stocks, analysts said some leading shares were testing support levels -- prices at which buying pressure might be expected to mount -- and that could presage further declines. "You have to be completely deaf, dumb and blind to think that anything with .com on it is your ticket to fame and fortune," said Bill Meehan, chief market analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald. In early afternoon the American Stock Exchange's 50-share Internet index <.IIX> was off 3.8 points, or 1.28 percent, at 292.31 points. The gauge has fallen 18 percent since its closing high in late April and tumbled 5.4 percent Monday alone. In late 1998 and early this year Internets were one of the major locomotives driving Wall Street higher. Investors piled into the sector as top stocks skyrocketed. The Internet index rose 270 percent from October to late April, and obscure companies showed dizzying rises after their initial public offerings. But the sector has lost a lot of its fizz amid fear this month that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates to head off inflation. Higher rates make Internet stocks less attractive to investors than bonds, for example, since many of the leaders are money-losers with hefty price tags and a lot of debt. For example, investors in popular Internet retailer Amazon.com Inc. <AMZN.O> are buying shares in a company that has never turned a profit and has not said when it expects to do so. Amazon.com shares were off 75 cents at $116.75, down 44 percent from their closing record a month ago. Internet portals also are dividing up their audience into thinner slices as the number of Web gateways multiplies. Ralph Bloch, chief technical analyst at Raymond James and Associates in St. Petersburg, Fla., said the drop off in Internet prices was inevitable after an almost perpendicular run-up. "When a stock or a group enters that kind of phase, that always ... signals the end of the move, or at least signals a healthy correction," he said. Bloch said he expected a period of consolidation of at least two months before Internets could make a serious move higher. He and Gregory Nie, technical analyst at Everen Securities in Chicago, pointed to support levels that various stocks had broken through or were nearing. Among them, Web portal company Yahoo! Inc. <YHOO.O> Monday crashed through the $150 level it had tested several times in the last few months. The shares were off $2.19 at $131.69 Tuesday. Internet service provider America Online Inc. <AOL.N> also was nearing a support level at $115. The shares were off 12.5 cents at $119.375. "It's important that it hold that," Nie said of the $115 level. "It's probably symptomatic of the group as a whole." Sounding a warning note, Charles Biderman, head of TrimTabs.com, a market data company in Santa Rosa, Calif., said new online investors were buying heavily with margin debt -- money borrowed from brokerages. Much of the margin debt was going into volatile Internet shares. "Either the market has to rise dramatically to make these loans good, or in any down move there's tremendous selling pressure," Biderman said. Among active Internet shares, portal Lycos Inc.<LCOS.O> rose $3.875 to $101.625 after it was added to the Nasdaq-100 index. The move takes effect at the start of trade Friday. REUTERS Rtr 15:46 05-25-99