by , 9:00 PM EDT, June 15th, 2001

Network Communications manufacturer Nortel warned of a staggering US$19 billion loss for one quarter today, helping to spook the markets into a steep drop in early morning trading. Nortel will turn in an operating loss of some US$1.5 billion, but including restructuring charges, bad debts, and other one-time costs, the final bill for the current quarter will be US$19.2 billion, the second highest quarterly loss ever. {Editor's Note: Wow!] Nortel will also cut another 10,000 jobs, part of the restructuring mentioned above. JDS Uniphase, also in the networking telecommunications market, also warned for the current quarter, adding to the market's jitters.

The silver lining in all the bad news is hope of yet another rate cut from the Fed. That hope helped bring the major indexes back up in late morning trading. Volume for both the Dow and the Nasdaq was the heaviest it has been in many weeks with more than 2.1 billion shares trading on the Nasdaq and almost 1.6 billion trading on the Dow.

Adobe got a boost today in heavy trading following their better than expected results turned in yesterday after the bell. Analysts were pleased that the company beat expectations, even though the company still showed a 7% decline in revenues. From a CBS Marketwatch report:

"We expect U.S. sales to continue to be weak, but we don't think it'll become much weaker than it is," said Bruce Chizen, Adobe's chief executive, in an interview. " Overall, we have a pretty good handle on the U.S. It's Asia and how bad does Europe get that are the question marks."

"It was a strong second quarter," said Sasha Zorovic, analyst with Robertson Stephens. "My only concern is going into the third quarter. The continuation of economic malaise could prolong this stagnant situation they're in."

Benjamin Reitzes of UBS Warburg raised Adobe's rating from a Buy to a Strong Buy today, and Adobe closed higher by 55 cents on twice the normal volume.

TheStandard is reporting on the efforts of some tech workers to get a tax law that has hammered them in the wallet. The law sets income tax on exercised options on the value of the stock the day the options are exercised. For those who exercised options at the height of the bull market, those values mostly proceeded to plummet, leaving many of these workers with tax bills that exceed their net worth. TheStandard's report is a good one, and we recommend it.

TheStandard also reported on some of the college dropouts that are billionaires, and a little competition that Larry Ellison has set up between Harvard and Stanford. The winner gets a few million dollars.

HP has introduced a new ultradense server called the PowerBar. Ultradense servers include several computers built into one chassis and are aimed at high-traffic networks. C|Net has an interesting report on HP's new product and the ultradense market in general.

AP has a list of large corporations and the job cuts that have been announced in the "past few months." For those keeping score at home, Dell is on the list and Apple isn't.

Apple's battle with the Church of Satan over the use of "Think Different" and a Made With Macintosh logo on the organization's Web site has made the mainstream press. Reuters reported on the issue, which the Church of Satan has made public on its Web site. Apple asked the group to stop using Apple's trademarked images on its Web site starting in February.

Apple opened up higher today, but traded down with the rest of the tech market shortly after the opening bell. AAPL recovered after an hour or so of trading in negative territory, and headed steadily higher throughout the late morning and early afternoon. At that point, the stock settled into a fairly stable trading range, and closed about 20 cents off the day's highs. AAPL's trading range was 19.35 - 20.75.

Apple closed at 20.44, a gain of 0.56 (+2.82%), on volume of 8,122,800 shares trading hands.

The Nasdaq closed at 2028.43, down 15.64 (-0.77%), on volume of 2,114,234,000 shares trading hands.

The Dow closed at 10623.64, off by 66.49 (-0.62%), on volume of 1,571,277,000 shares trading hands.

The S&P 500 closed at 1214.36, a loss of 5.51 (-0.45%).

Adobe closed at 39.56, a gain of 0.55 (+1.41%), on very strong volume of 9,716,500 shares trading hands.

Akamai's shareholders and execs are still unloading shares in the company. AKAM closed at 7.51, down 9 cents (-1.18%), on light volume of 2,263,300 shares trading hands. Apple is a large shareholder of Akamai.

Earthlink is mentioned in a piece from NewsFactor about Sony's e Villa Network Entertainment Center, for which Earthlink is providing Internet access. ELNK closed at 12.74, a loss of 0.49 (-3.70%), on light volume of 2,158,300 shares trading hands.

IBM closed at 113.60, a loss of 2.15 (-1.86%), on strong volume of 12,584,600 shares trading hands.

Macromedia was downgraded from Outperform to Neutral by Solomon Smith Barney today. MACR closed at 20.21, a loss of 0.92 (-4.35%), on volume of 1,283,300 shares trading hands.

Motorola is fighting to be part of the Star Wars missile defense plan. MOT closed at 14.25, a gain of 0.32 (+2.30%), on strong volume of 16,120,200 shares trading hands.

Dell got some Father's Day kudos from The Motley Fool in a piece that praised the company and its products. DELL closed at 24.32, a loss of 0.72 (-2.88%), on volume of 34,148,300 shares trading hands.

Gateway closed at 15.90, up 4 cents (+0.25%), on light volume of 2,183,300 shares trading hands.

Intel closed at 27.68, up 7 cents (+0.25%), on volume of 54,988,000 shares trading hands.

Microsoft has settled with another company that held the rights to the Xbox name, with Microsoft now owning the name. We were unable to find terms for the deal. Microsoft saw a lot of selling by insiders during the month of may. Lastly, there were rumors that Microsoft wouldn't meet expectations, though they were largely discounted by the end of the day. MSFT closed at 68.02, a loss of 0.88 (-1.28%), on strong volume of 54,246,200 shares trading hands.