Another brutal day for tech stocks

Updated at 1:20 p.m. PDT with closing stock prices.

Tech stocks took another beating on Monday, although shares recovered somewhat in the final two hours of trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial average was down more than 700 points in mid-day trading, but recovered to close at 9,955.50 points, down 369.88 points, or 2.6 percent. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, dropped below 1,800 points, before closing at 1,862.96, down 84.43, or 4.3 percent. The CNET Tech Index closed Monday at 1,267.87 , down 63.1 points, or 4.7 percent.

Several major indexes, including the Dow and Nasdaq, traded at multiyear lows during the session, while the CNET Tech Index was at its lowest point since 2006.

SAP, which warned on Monday that its third quarter sales fell below estimates as business spending on software dropped, saw its shares off more than 15 percent, changing hands near the close at $39.76, down $5.89, or nearly 13 percent.

AMD, Palm, and RIM were all down double digit percentages for part of the day, though all the stocks managed to pare those losses significantly before trading closed. Google shares closed at $369.14, down $17.77, or 4.6 percent. Microsoft shares closed at $24.91, down $1.41, or more than 5 percent.

Yahoo shareholders, meanwhile, have even more reason to resent management that rejected Microsoft's $33-per-share offer. Yahoo shares closed Monday at $15.19, down 81 cents, or about 5 percent.

Apple was among the rare companies to end in positive territory, closing regular trading $98.14, up $1.07, or 1 percent.

I talked about the stock drop on today's CNET News Daily Debrief, above.

(Credit: Susan Dove/CNET Networks)

[Kwasiowusu]

So much for all this talk about the $700 Billion "bailout" will saving the markets. Since the "bailout" bill was passed on Friday, we have had 2 straight days of very sharp falls on Wall Street (Friday and today). On the other hand, after the House had refused to pass the bailout bill, the the markets went shaply up the day aftet that, and the dollar had its biggest one day rise ever.
This "bailout" is a waste of tax payer dollars.
Sad thing is, they are going to keep coming for even more tax payer dollars now.

[catch23]

Wow, 2 days. And a bailout that hasn't even made it into the hands of anyone yet.
Meanwhile, more problems in Europe cause the market to go down ( not even 3%, as of 4:00PM EST)
And the markets went up the next day because everyone knew the bailout was coming, so I don't know what you are attempting to show.

The sad thing is fools with no idea of what Economics means passing judgment on something they don't even understand.

[Commander_Spock]

Wow! This was pointing... re: "The sad thing is fools with no idea of what Economics means passing judgment on something they don't even understand." Are ya talking about "Economics" as it is related to that Economic Rate of Return (ERR) Formula Commander_Spock and Crew keep talking about. And, it is agreed - you can bet the farm that a majority of folks around the world have not the slightest clue what is being talked about here. And, better yet where are the 'tools" for the analysts to re-work the "economic strategies" and get them right this time around?

[stigmattaman]

Ina Fried's a guy? Wow!

[stigmattaman]

Oh, never mind. I Wiki'd Ina, my apologies if I sounded insensitive.

[Mr. Dee]

People need to understand that spending is definitely gonna be put to a stop especially where IT investments are made. Whatever is in place now will have to work for the foreseeable future. When you think about Company's like Microsoft and Apple who are constantly investing and depending on the release of new products to drive growth, things look gloomy. I personally plan on holding off on tech purchases for the next couple of years. My cell phone and existing computers do what I want them to do.