Nasdaq Perks Up via Bottom Fishing

While it was another down day for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Nasdaq Composite actually broke a string of 7 down days, and posted a modest gain: The index rose 4.39, or 0.3%, to 1,649.51. The index nonetheless finished the horrific week with a loss of nearly 298 points, or 15.3%. At one point today the index touched as low as 1542.45, stretching the loss for the week to just over 400 points, or nearly 21%. Astonishing.

One interesting development in today’s whipsaw session was the emergence of what appears to be some selective bottom-fishing. Apple (AAPL) was the most obvious example; the stock rebounded $8.06, or 9.1%, to $96.80, aided by some bullish comments from Oppenheimer as well as anticipation of the company’s pending launch of new laptops at an event on Tuesday.

But there were other stocks that made surprisingly strong moves, as well. There may be other factors at work in some of the names on the following list other than simple bargain hunting, but it is nonetheless encouraging to see some investors venturing into what have been extremely dangerous waters:

• Websense (WBSN) rose $1.77, or 9.9%, to $19.60.
• iRobot (IRBT) rose $1.77, or 17.2%, to $12.09.
• Bankrate (RATE) rose $2.70, or 9%, to $32.85.
• Blue Nile (NILE) rose $3.32, or 8.9%, to $40.85.
• THQ (THQI) rose 96 cents, or 11.5%, to $9.30.
• Zoltek (ZOLT) rose $1.13, or 13.1%, to $9.74.
• Limelight Networks (LLNW) rose 45 cents, or 22.1%, to $2.49.
• Aruba Networks (ARUN) rose 68 cents, or 21.6%, to $3.83.
• LoopNet (LOOP) rose $1.61, or 19.1%, to $10.05.
• TechTarget (TTGT) rose $1.33, or 36.1%, to $5.01.

Comments

[GKM:]

Sucker rallies are always encouraging by definition. A rally that is met with skepticism will denote a change in trend.

2008 Oct 11 10:32 AM