April Flowers - Industry Trend or Event

Industry Standard, The, April 23, 2001 by David Lake

April 9 to 13, 2001 Yahoo beats previously lowered earnings estimates by a penny, announces it will cut staff by 12 percent and loses another high-level executive. What happens? The market rallies. Wall Street likes a company that beats expectations - even if those expectations weren't that ambitious. The tech-heavy Nasdaq saw four straight days of gains. Even more stunning was the rally of The Industry Standard 100. This index of 100 Internet Economy stocks closed up 23 percent at 377.

Investors were encouraged by some good news from the tech sector. Cisco rival Juniper Networks reported sharp gains in first-quarter earnings, meeting analyst expectations of 17 cents per share. And RSA Security, which makes hardware and software to protect computer networks, reported strong earnings.

The Web also picked up steam. Online traffic levels jumped 3 percent, as almost 66 million Americans clicked around the Net. And after a four-week rut, online shopping increased. Easter holiday gift-buying drove consumers to place 6 million online orders, 7 percent more than the previous week. All told, shoppers spent $828 million online. That's a lot of Easter eggs.

Other developments weren't as colorful. Net advertising levels dipped 2 percent. One-hour delivery service Kozmo.com shut down. Consulting firm Scient cut 675 employees and said it would move its headquarters to New York. NBC announced plans to shutter its NBCi Web operation. Although 17 firms handed out more than 3,500 pink slips, layoffs for the week fell 55 percent.

The Internet Economy Index rates the week of April 9 a 4.

ADVERTISING   2%
SHOPPING      7%
STOCKS       23%
LAYOFFS      55%
TRAFFIC       3%
BUZZ         11%

[Graph omitted]

[Graph omitted]

[Graph omitted]

[Graph omitted]

[Graph omitted]

[Graph omitted]

[Graph omitted]