SAN FRANCISCO (05/23/2000) - The Nasdaq compounded last week's losses with a 6 percent drop this morning. The index dropped 177.24, to 3213.16, in morning trading. The stock market suffered from extremely low trading volume this morning. Investors appear to be wary of trading at a time when the Federal Reserve Board has taken a cautious stance, and they may already be apprehensive about the results of the board's next meeting, only four weeks away. The low volume exaggerated all of the market's movements this morning, heightening the pain of the sell-off. Large-cap losers this morning included Oracle Corp., which dropped 10 percent to $63.10, and Cisco Systems Inc., which lost 6 percent to $50.12. Dell Computer Corp. dropped 6 percent to $44.18. In the Internet sector, Ariba plunged 13 percent to $51.25, and Amazon.com INc. fell 9 percent to $47.93. Investors continued to rebuff merger news as well. Vignette Corp. announced a $1.7 billion stock deal to buy Internet software firm OnDisplay Inc. - and Vignette's stock promptly plunged 23 percent to $33.50.
OnDisplay held steady, though, losing only 1 percent to $52.75. WebMethods Inc. announced plans to buy Active Software for $1.3 billion. Active Software lost 9 percent to $30.12, while WebMethods dropped 22 percent to $68.