The PowerShares QQQ (Nasdaq: NasdaqGM: QQQ) was off fractionally in early trading Thursday following mixed results from eBay (NasdaqGS: EBAY) and Akamai Technologies (NasdaqGS: AKAM).
Akamai shares plunged more than 15% in opening trades Thursday. The company reported higher earnings “but with an outlook that once again has caused some level of investor angst as volume based growth is surprisingly reported to be moderating,” said Collins Stewart analysts in a report.
“In fact, the company now appears to be backing away from the 15%+ revenue growth guidance for 2011, which was provided during the [fourth-quarter] conference call,” according to the note. “We believe investors will largely view the comments as a sign of incremental competition from Level 3 (NasdaqGS: LVLT) and others and that the perceived attractiveness of that segment of business is just not as once anticipated.”
eBay shares opened higher Thursday but then slipped into the red following quarterly results. The company said its first-quarter profit rose 20%.
The stocks are components in PowerShares QQQ as well as ETFs for the Internet sector.
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