Another day, another closing bell. Another set of data points entered into the books. And as data points come and go, these haven't been the best of times for the stock market or the Rule Breaker portfolio, although that will depend on how far back you look, or how far forward you're trying to see. Just 24 hours ago, the "technology laden Nasdaq," as it is so often called, experienced its second worst point loss ever.
Of course, it's the percentage of the movement, and not the points, that really counts, but yesterday's 7% loss was itself impressive, helping the index land more than 25% off its all-time high set way back in early March -- about five weeks ago. With that drop, the Nasdaq was officially, at long last, in the "bear market" the media had been dreading and, it sometimes seemed, was at the same time hoping for with an unmistakable show biz instinct for spills, chills, and the daily cliffhanger.
And what would today's market bring? How much further might it need to fall before righting itself?
Adding to the drama, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan would appear today on Capitol Hill, answering questions about the equities markets, and we all know what that means. Well, actually, we don't know what that means, which is all part of the show. As it turns out, Mr. Greenspan "didn't do much damage," in the words of one narrating head. At midday, with the Nasdaq up nicely, the S&P 500 all over the place, and the Dow decidedly down, the market was declared "mixed," which is another way of saying "uncertain." As the numbers below show, though, that didn't last and for the market as a whole today's story was again written, with certainty, in red.
Unfortunately, the same is also true for the Breaker port, despite the efforts of two of our players. Celera (NYSE: CRA) and Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) both gained about 6%, with no apparent news to account for the move in either stock -- not that we're about to argue with the gains. Instead, we'll just brew up a fresh cup of genome and contemplate the wonders of sequencing the coffee bean. Or something along those lines.
eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) announced that it would launch a corporate print shop for its top sellers that will let them order eBay-branded business cards, Post-it notes, shipping labels, and other printed material. This new addition to eBay's user services, called "PowerSellers," is being launched in partnership with iPrint.com (Nasdaq: IPRT.) Although the market either ignored or shrugged off the news, with eBay losing over 3% (and iPrint off a whopping 25%), longer term it is just such services that keep the company moving ahead as a winner.
America Online (NYSE: AOL) announced that two of its facilities, in Virginia and California, would host two new name servers for Network Solutions (Nasdaq: NSOL), the leading registry and registrar of Internet domain names. AOL also announced the launch of a new AOL Travel service in partnership with Travelocity.com (Nasdaq: TVLY.) Neither company was helped by today's news, however. AOL fell 6%, and Travelocity.com lost 14%.
Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM) closed down 4% after announcing the appointment of a new president to its MatchLogic division, which provides marketing, advertising, and profiling services to its own Excite portal as well as third-party clients. With today's close, Excite@Home is now down almost 11% from where Breaker port first bought its shares. Also being sold down the river today was Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), which lost almost 15% without any particular news to account for it.
Of course, on days like this, and especially in market conditions like this, it's worth remembering that stocks can move without any news, just as they can move in ways we wouldn't expect them to based on the news that was released. But then, news doesn't move stocks; people move stocks in reaction to news, sometimes long after that news has been received and digested, and processed and combined with other information. That's where knee-jerk reactions get left behind, and where context is found, and a more insightful and Foolish brand of investing begins.
