Tech, Channel Stocks Hammered on Wall Street

The bears of Wall Street aren’t being kind to publicly traded technology vendors and solution providers. As the markets continued their downward spiral that ended in one of the worst weeks of trading in Wall Street history, technology stocks were hammered as investors anticipated decreasing demand for hardware and software by enterprisers and SMB consumers.

Week over week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is off 5.3 percent – or 473 points – as investors went on a rollercoaster ride. At the beginning of the week, the DJIA recaptured lost ground from the week before and hit a high above 9,200. The Dow and other indexes slid back into the red as fears of the global recession that will curtail enterprise and consumer spending prompted investors to continue pulling money out of the volatile markets.

The technology sector is being dragged down by concerns that consumers won’t spend on expensive electronics in the coming holiday season. Enterprises—particularly financial services and manufacturing—are cutting back drastically on new IT spending. And American Express warned that small businesses will soon start feeling the pinch of the credit crunch.

Overall, only three of the 50 publicly traded technology vendors—Citrix Systems, EMC and VMware—monitored by Channel Insider ended this week in positive territory. All 40 publicly traded solution providers on the Channel Insider watch list fell into the red.

The following are top publicly traded technology vendors and solution providers. The stock quotes are closing prices for Friday, Oct. 17 and Friday, Oct. 24. The difference is the week-over-week stock price shift.