Open Source stock report: Markets remain closed in wake of terror attacks

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Author: JT Smith

By Dan Berkes
Wall Street remains closed in the wake of terrorists attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. While business has been anything but usual since Tuesday, there are some events that merit coverage in this abbreviated edition of the Open Source stock report.The Dow Jones Industrial Average stands at 9,605.51 from Monday, virtually unchanged from last Friday’s close of 9,605.85. The Nasdaq composite ended Monday at 1,695.37, up a few points from Friday’s close of 1,687.70.

All U.S. financial markets were closed or did not start trading on Tuesday, and have remained closed since that day. Both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq have told investors that, barring any negative outcome from a barrage of equipment testing and trading simulations taking place this weekend, they will reopen on Monday for normal trading. Most affected by the attack on the World Trade Center is the American Stock Exchange, which reports that its trading floor has been rendered unusable by the collapse of the twin towers. That exchange plans, temporarily, to use the facilities of the NYSE.

The four-day shutdown is the longest period of time that Wall Street has been shuttered since the outbreak of World War I. What will happen to the markets on Monday is anyone’s guess, and not much can be divined by looking at the performance of overseas stock markets this week. European markets dropped like a rock on Tuesday, then gained by leaps and bounds on Wednesday and Thursday, with more muted and mixed results on Friday. In Asia, markets headed south on Friday thanks to fearful investors anticipating steep losses from Wall Street when trading resumes. The Canadian stock market made gains when it reopened on Thursday, but sank in trading on Friday.

In other news:

Caldera’s layoff ax whacks key programmer
Caldera International earlier this month announced that it would layoff 51 employees; apparently programmer Juergen G. Kienhoefer was among those who received pink slips. Kienhoefer helped write the Linux Kernel Personality software that enables Linux programs to run without modification on Caldera’s Open Unix software. Caldera says that layoffs affected all areas of the company, including marketing, development, and administration, and the the company still has key individuals working on the LKP project, which it considers a vital part of its product line.

Sun awards grant to Open Source effort
On Monday, Sun Microsystems announced that it will contribute computer hardware to the Open Bioinformatics Foundation, including servers and a secure storage system. The Open Bioinformatics Foundation distributes, develops, and supports standards-based Open Source tools for life science research and data integration. The foundation plans to use the Netra rackmount servers, a Cobalt RAQ 4, and a Netra ST A1000 to enable more reliable and secure distribution of its software tools and collaborative projects.

EBIZ files for bankruptcy protection
EBIZ Enterprises, the Linux e-commerce provider and system builder, and its wholly owned subsidiary Jones Business Systems filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late last week. In a letter posted on the EBIZ Web site, CEO Dave Shaw writes “…our plan is to reorganize, not liquidate.” The letter is an updated version of one Shaw posted a few weeks ago, in which he revealed that several funding commitments made to the company had fallen through, and that EBIZ would have difficulty continuing operations without an immediate cash infusion.

Here’s how Open Source and related tech stocks ended Monday:

Company Name Symbol 09/10 Close 09/07 Close
Apple AAPL 17.37 * 17.28
Borland Software Int’l BORL 9.47 9.88
Caldera International CALD 0.39 0.46
EBIZ Enterprises EBIZ.OB 0.025 0.045
Hewlett Packard HWP 17.89 18.08
IBM IBM 96.47 96.59
MandrakeSoft 4477.PA e6.18 + e5.99
Merlin Software Tech. MLSW.OB 0.25 0.24
Red Hat RHAT 3.12 3.32
Sun Microsystems SUNW 10.29 * 10.59
TiVo TIVO 4.30 4.56
VA Linux Systems LNUX 1.14 1.07
Wind River Systems WIND 13.12 13.25

* – Closing price dated September 11, 2001. Some stocks traded briefly on Tuesday before the markets were closed.

+ – Denotes Friday’s closing price. MandrakeSoft is traded on the Euronext Marche Libre, which remained open this week.

Category:

  • Open Source