Tech Sector Spooky, Nasdaq Down 14.7% Since Halloween Peak

U-G-L-Y.

That’s what the tech sector was Friday. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.95%, or 48.58 points to 2439.94, increasing its loss to 2.6% for the week, 8.5% for the year, and 14.7% since peaking at 2859.12 on October 31. The basic issue is that the evidence of a recession continues to mount. Tech analysts are beginning to deal with the issue. Cowen cut estimates on e-commerce stocks, citing the downturn. For similar reasons, Canaccord Adams turned cautious on tech, and downgraded a bunch of stocks. Credit Suisse turned cautious on European semi stocks. Meanwhile, RF Micro (RFMD) issued a warning on Q4 results, citing weakness late in the quarter; and Infosys (INFY) said some customers had yet to finalize IT budgets for 2008.

Not good. Not good at all.

In Friday’s trading:

• Intel (INTC) fell 55 cents, or 2.4%, to $21.99.
• RF Micro (RFMD) fell $1.29, or 25.7%, to $3.73.
• Oracle (ORCL) fell 58 cents, or 2.7%, to $21.10.
• Apple (AAPL) fell $5.33, or 3%, to $172.69.
• Research In Motion (RIMM) fell $6.96, or 6.9%, to $93.70.
• Infosys (INFY) fell $2.70, or 6.3%, to $40.14.
• Cognizant (CTSH) fell $2.87, or 9.6%, to $27.11.
• Google (GOOG) fell $8.48, or 1.3%, to $638.25.
• Amazon (AMZN) fell $3.18, or 3.8%, to $81.08.
• VMware (VMS) fell $2.59, or 3.2%, to $77.71.

Comments

[sunrises:]

Like your articles. Isn't VMW's valuation at 92 and above? The company has strong accounts thus wouldn't we see returns at similar base?

2008 Jan 14 10:37 AM

[bru2v:]

Hey, Eric - Halloween has two l's. Sorta strange to have a misspelling in your subject line...

2008 Jan 14 12:32 PM

[Thomas Victor:]

At the lower prices, people are buying INFY and CTSH today, CTSH ended up 4.57% on more than normal volume.

2008 Jan 14 04:30 PM