Technology stocks were down overall in the final week of trading for 2008. With just three days left until the New Year most companies are predicting a sluggish start to 2009 and minimal gains through the first half.
On Friday, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) reported this was “the best holiday season” they had seen. The online retailer stated over 6.3 million items were ordered during the official holiday season. The same could be said for direct marketing retailer (DMR) Insight (NASDAQ: NSIT). The company who was recently named CA’s value-added reseller of the year was up 20 percent this week closing at $5.95.
Other DMR’s did not fare as well last week. PC Connection (NASDAQ: PCCC) and PC Mall (NASDAQ: MALL) were down 16 and 5 percent respectively.
Unisys (NYSE: UIS) offered pink slips as holiday gifts to 1,300 employees worldwide on December 23. Investors and analysts saw this as a positive move with Unisys stock gaining 33 percent but still closing well below a dollar at $0.72.
Polycom (NASDAQ: PLCM) the conference call equipment manufacturer dropped 11 percent this week on news of an earnings estimate cut by Wedbush Morgan. As Polycom continues to report record rollouts of equipment to companies such as Telstra, investors believe the competition from Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) and others will continue to put pressure on the manufacturer in an economy with waning demand.
Distributor Synnex (NYSE: SNX) continues to lead the pack with a 6 percent gain over the prior week. Arrow Electronics (NYSE: ARW) remained flat, Ingram Micro (NYSE: IM) dropped 2 percent and Tech Data (NASDAQ: TECD) noted a 5 percent loss.