Online Retailer Shares Lag Broader Markets In October

Shares of online retailer stocks managed to lag the broader markets in October, a performance that at least partially keyed into lackluster earnings results for the third quarter, which ended in September.

Overall, InternetRetailer.com said its tracking of 25 eCommerce names showed the group off 6.5 percent, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite was down 2.1 percent for the same month. The group as whole, however, for the 10 months that ended October, was up 6.8 percent for the year, leading that same broader index, which gained 5.6 percent through the same period.

The internet retailers are equal-weighted in the Index, said the site, with the aim of not having an outsized impact of any one firm’s price movement, up or down, as measured by market cap. Breaking down the performance, said Internet Retailer, seven stocks were up, and the remainders down. By way of snapshot, Akamai Technologies gained 29 percent, with n much of that gain, at 15 percent, coming just after earnings were reported on Oct. 15. Amazon fell 5 percent after margins lagged expectations for its own report.