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CNNfn market movers
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November 17, 1998: 2:43 p.m. ET
H-P gets punished, mixed bag among biotechs, and Amazon.com turns a page
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Investors were mixing it up with biotech stocks Tuesday, after another cancer treatment got an important approval from regulators, while computer titan "H-P" meant "harshly punished" on Wall Street.
Hewlett-Packard (HWP) sank 6-1/8 to 60, or more than 10 percent, dragging on the Dow industrials average after the PC maker on Monday posted fiscal fourth-quarter profit per share above expectations, but its bottom line was largely boosted by cost-cutting.
Year-over-year sales growth of 4 percent came up short of analyst estimates. Lehman Brothers cut its fiscal-year 1999 earnings per share estimate to $3.25 from $3.40.
And Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette cut its rating to "market underperform" from "market perform."
Mixed results for cancer-fighters
DepoTech (DEPO) rose 1-7/16 to 3-5/32 after a U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel on Monday approved its DepoCyt treatment for a rare form of cancer, lymphomatous meningitis.
And LeukoSite (LKST), also a developer of cancer treatments, rose 1-7/8 to 12-1/8 after Hambrecht & Quist upgraded the company to "strong buy" from "buy" on expectations it will win FDA approval for the leukemia antibody Campath by the end of next year
But Cell Pathways (CLPA), a cancer-treatment developer which opened for trading Nov. 4 at 17, dropped 2-5/16 to 9-1/16. Its lead drug candidate, FGN-1, is in clinical trials.
The company's chief financial officer, Brian Hayden cited profit-taking that hit the stock.
Elsewhere, Ceridian (CEN) climbed 3-7/16 to 58-13/16 after Merrill Lynch upgraded the payroll processor and radio-audience monitor to "intermediate buy" from "accumulate" and predicted annual earnings growth of 20 percent in coming years.
Citizens (CZC) climbed 2-11/16 to 33-1/8 after Allmerica Financial (AFC) late Monday upped its offer for fellow insurance company to $32.50 a share from $29. The higher bid led Citizens' board to recommend shareholders take the deal.
Eastern Environmental (EESI) plummeted 4-7/16 to 24 after the Justice Department said it would try to block the garbage hauler's planned $1.8 billion merger with larger rival Waste Management (WMI) on antitrust concerns.
Eastern Environmental said it remains optimistic that the merger can be completed, adding that it has "tentative" accords for many of the conflicts, and others can be resolved.
Also hemorrhaging was Sangstat Medical (SANG) falling 4-11/16 to 22-13/16 after the maker of therapeutic and monitoring products for organ transplants posted a 64-cent loss on Monday, 2 cents more than analysts had expected.
PeopleSoft (PSFT) fell 3/4 to 19-3/4 after the enterprise software maker said it plans to spin off its research and development unit - to be named Momentum Business Applications - as a dividend to shareholders.
PeopleSoft said it would back the company with $300 million.
Softer Internet stocks, save one
While most of the Internet sector stocks headed lower, bellwether online bookseller Amazon.com (AMZN) gained 12-5/8 to 138-7/8 after saying Tuesday it would sell personal electronics, games, gadgets, and toys for all ages on its web site in the holiday season.
Again among the losers, but off their lows, were two of last week's stellar initial public offerings: technical resources provider EarthWeb (EWBX) off 6-7/8 to 55-3/8, and web page provider theglobe.com (TGLO), off 4-1/4 to 44-1/2.
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