Tech stocks up, but Disney down

Technology stocks continued to surge today, as Yahoo and Excite reached new 52-week highs. Disney, however, did not fare as well.

Shares in the portal companies rose with the tide of the technology-laden Nasdaq, which closed at 1894.74, up 3.66 points over yesterday.

Other major indexes declined today. The Dow, for example, fell to 8952.02, down 45.34 points over yesterday.

Much of the Dow's loss was due to a slide in media and entertainment giant Disney, whose stock closed off 7.6875 at 105.5, down about 6 percent. The company accounted for just over 30 points of the Dow's downturn.

Disney fell sharply after several analysts cut their 1998 earnings estimates on the company.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Prudential Securities today cut their earnings estimates on Disney, and Schroder & Company lowered its rating on the stock to "perform in line" from "outperform."

Today's cuts, prompted by concerns about lower income from Disney videos and depressed Asian demand for the company's consumer products, represented the second wave of cuts for the company in about three weeks.

Yahoo closed at 157.5 a share, up 3.0625 over yesterday. The stock rose as high as 159.75 in midday trading, surpassing the company's previous high of 156.25, reached last Thursday.

The rise in Yahoo's stock followed the launch of Yahoo Real Estate, a site that features tools and information on buying, selling, and renting property.

Excite hit a day high of 93.625 before closing at 93.5, up 7.6250 over the day before. The company's previous high of 93.3125 was reached last April.

Excite's jump followed its unveiling of new cobranded content channels with Netscape for the Netcenter portal site.

Reuters contributed to this report.