Another Down Day For Techs

The Federal Reserve may be convinced that the economic slowdown is temporary, but technology investors appear to have some doubts about that view.

Cautious guidance from Cisco Systems and warnings from National Semi and Kulicke and Soffa sent the Nasdaq skidding to new lows for the year on Wednesday, just a day after stocks surged on upbeat comments from the Fed.

Stocks recovered to finish well off their worst levels of the day, but the Nasdaq still ended down 1.5%.

Investors will get another chance to gauge the health of the technology sector when Dell reports its results after the close on Thursday. Analysts expect the company to report earnings of 31 cents a share, up from 24 cents a year ago, on revenues of $11.72 billion. As for the company’s guidance, analysts are expecting earnings of 33 cents a share on revenues of $12.51 billion for the October quarter.

The Nasdaq tumbled 26 to 1782, the S&P 500 lost 3 to 1075, and the Dow slipped 6 to 9938. Volume rose to 1.41 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.8 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 18-14 on the NYSE, and 19-11 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 64% on the NYSE, and 79% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 21-88 on the NYSE, and 15-256 on the Nasdaq.

Netflix lost 6% on competition from Blockbuster .

Computer Sciences fell 3% on mixed results, while Pomeroy Computer edged 2% higher after beating estimates.

Business Objects and MicroStrategy fell on a legal dispute.

UTStarcom tumbled 14% after delaying its second-quarter filing.

Essex rose 9% on its results.

Primus Knowledge finished unchanged despite a takeover offer from Art Technology .

DigitalNet climbed 5% on a U.S. Justice Department contract win.

And Google’s IPO is back on track, with bidder registration set to close on Thursday.