TECH STOCKS: Reality Meets Wishes With A Thud

Spoiled investors continued to take their frustrations out on the markets Monday. Down, down, down, and down went our indexes when earnings news didn't meet inflated expectations--something they'd been warned about in the last couple weeks. Technology stocks bore the brunt of the selling, after printer maker Lexmark International Inc. warned of soggy profits and a Wall Street brokerage cut its investment rating on cell-phone maker Motorola Inc.

Leading the pack south was our InformationWeek 100, which fell 1.7%, or 4.29 points, to 248.29. A step behind was the Nasdaq, which fell 1.6%, or 27.02 points, to 1,681.48. The S&P 500 fell 1.5%, or 14.52 points, to 978.8, and the Dow Jones industrials fell 1%, or 91.46 points, to 9,096.69.

The Nasdaq-100 tracking stock, which some watch to see how tech shares are trading generally, closed the day down 1.3%, or 40 cents, at $30.88, on very heavy volume of 111.2 million shares--well above its average daily trading volume of 84 million shares. Even with its drop, the Nasdaq-100 (QQQ) is trading very near its 52-week high of $32.75 and light years of its 52-week low of $19.76.