Oracle Corp’s bad hangover from Monday’s downwards earnings surprise established a Nasdaq trading record yesterday as the shares closed down $9.4375, or 29.2% at $22.9375. But it was the volume that set the record: some 171,796,800 shares were traded, representing about 31% of the total traded on Nasdaq yesterday. The market appeared to view Oracle excuses for the quarter’s poor performance – problems in Asia stemming from the strong dollar – with more than a little skepticism, after all Asia only accounts for about 15% of the company’s revenues so something more significant was at work, so the thinking goes. The slide was exacerbated by hefty downgrades from Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers to neutral from buys or strong buys while Goldman Sachs and Hambrecht & Quist downgraded to similar ratings. The stock opened a shade higher than it closed as buyers came in to snap up the cheap shares, preventing it falling further. The previous most heavily traded stock in share volume terms was the now de-listed Comparator in May 1996 with 152 million shares traded.
