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Santa visits tech land
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December 23, 1999: 5:31 p.m. ET
Dot-coms decline as traditional names come back into the rotation
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Blue-chip tech stocks were at the top of investors’ lists on Thursday, as a so-called "Santa Claus rally” pushed the market to yet another record close.
Though technology issues have been the market’s stars lately, the run was accelerated Thursday, which market observers attributed mostly to investors locking in some of those shares ahead of the Christmas holiday weekend and the end of the year
"This is a seasonal rally that happens around Christmas just about every year,” said Dan Ascani, of Global Market Strategists Inc. "The market is closed tomorrow, so this is the last day you can buy before Christmas.”
The buying spread to all sectors of the market, sending the major indexes skyrocketing. The tech-rich Nasdaq composite rose 0.84 percent, ending the session 32.14 higher at 3969.44, after breaching the 4,000 mark at around midday.
But the broader markets, which posted much sharper gains, eclipsed the run-up in techs.
The Dow Jones industrial average soared 1.8 percent, ending the session 202.16 higher at 11,405.76. The S&P 500 ticked up 22.35 to 1,458.34, a 1.56 percent rise on the day.
Among the day’s biggest gainers in the tech sector, Hewlett-Packard (HWP) gained 5.32 percent, adding 5-11/16 to 112-5/8. Shares of Dell Computer (DELL) picked up 2-3/8 to 52-11/16, a 4.72 percent rise on the day. Compaq Computer (CPQ) rose 5 percent, ending the session 1-3/8 higher at 28-3/4.
But where blue-chip tech stocks posted strong gains on Thursday, many of the high-flying dot-coms headed the other way.
The Dow Jones composite Internet index slid 2.3 percent, finishing 9.49 lower at 403.58.
Shares of online retailer Amazon.com (AMZN) slipped 7-11/16 to 90, a 7.87 percent decline on the day. Web portal Lycos (LCOS) lost nearly 5 percent, ending the session 4-3/8 lower at 85-1/8. Streaming media outfit RealNetworks (RNWK) sank nearly 13 percent, finishing 19-3/4 lower at 133-9/16.
Juno Online Services (JWEB) dove more than 24 percent, off 15-1/16, to 46-3/16, erasing earlier gains in the week after it said it would unveil free Web access and got a boost from PaineWebber, which set a new price target at $120. The company on Thursday also announced plans for a public offering of additional shares of its common stock.
On the upside, shares of Internet software vendor Inktomi (INKT) were lifted by an analyst’s upgrade, ending the session up 15 at 191-1/2, an 8.5 percent rise on the day. Merrill Lynch upgraded its rating on the stock to "accumulate” from "neutral” and pegged a new price target of 225.
Shares of Microsoft (MSFT) ended down 1/8 at 117-7/16 after hitting a new intraday high of 119-1/4. The company on Wednesday said its chief financial officer Greg Maffei had resigned.
Qualcomm (QCOM), which has been one of this year’s best Nasdaq performers, also missed out on the pre-holiday buying spree. The stock slipped nearly 4 percent, ending down 18-15/16 at 466-1/2. After the closing bell Wednesday, the company said it would sell its consumer phone business to Kyocera, a Japanese electronics and packaging firm. 
-- from staff and wire reports
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