Markets were broadly higher on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.31%) rising nearly 40 points as of 11:33 a.m. EST. The tech-heavy Nasdaq briefly broke above 4,000 for the first time since 2000.
Despite that move higher, a number of hot tech stocks, including Yelp (YELP +4.71%), Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU), and Intel (INTC +5.42%), tumbled.
Weak economic data
Economic data released early on Monday was generally weak. Pending home sales in October fell 0.60% from the prior year, while economists had expected a 1.3% gain. At the same time, the Dallas Federal Reserve general business activity index also disappointed at just 1.9, less than the 5.0 estimate.
Neither of those data points are considered particularly crucial. The market's move higher was in line with the movement of stocks in Europe and Asia, with Japan's Nikkei 225 rising more than 1.5% overnight.
Yelp's momentum runs out
Despite the rally, Yelp shareholders suffered as the web portal's shares fell more than 7% in early trading on Monday, seemingly on no news. There were no earnings releases, analyst changes, or other major announcements that investors might have expected to send shares lower.
It may simply be a case of momentum losing steam. Yelp is up more than 200% in 2013, and nearly 100% in just the last sixth months. As a somewhat new IPO, and one highly valued at that, Yelp shareholders should be used to such rapid swings, and should expect further volatility.
Qihoo 360 gets a downgrade
The reason for Qihoo 360's sell-off, and 5.6% drop, was much more obvious -- analysts at Stifel Nicolaus downgraded the stock to hold from buy, following the company's earnings report.
Stifel believes the first half of next year will be rough for Qihoo 360 and will limit the company's performance. But long-term shareholders should pay little attention to Stifel's note; the analysts acknowledged that Qihoo 360 remains a good long-term investment. Indeed, they believe momentum will return to shares in the second half of 2014.
Intel plans to target other markets
Intel's move was not nearly as dramatic as Qihoo 360's or Yelp's, but the Dow Jones component dropped all the same, shedding more than 1% early on Monday.
The company's chairman admitted last week that Intel had "lost its way." The demand for mobile devices has limited Intel's growth, as most tablets and smartphones use chips based on designs from Intel's competitor, ARM Holdings. Intel plans to get back into this market with its new Bay Trail chips, and also plans to move into wearable computing with a product called Quark, according to The Wall Street Journal. Still, it's become clear that Intel is now playing catch up.
