Investor Snapshot: Nintendo stock dives, others barely move

Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s stock price on the NASDAQ fell sharply today, shedding $14.50 per share and closing 11.75 percent lower at $109. The movement came after yesterday's news that Nintendo had cut its yearly earnings forecast by 20 billion yen ($194 million). That announcement, along with concerns about a stronger yen, cast a pall on the Nikkei 225 Stock Average Thursday.

But after yesterday's heat on the Street, most game-related stocks barely budged today. Activision (ATVI), THQ Inc. (THQI), Vivendi Universal (V), Electronics Boutique (ELBO), and GameStop Corp. (GME) each saw movement of less than a percentage point, and most were up or down by less than 25 cents at the close of trading.

Even Take-Two Interactive (TTWO), which made news forging a deal with the MLBPA, launching a new label, and nabbing Civ IV this week, moved just 2 cents for the day, closing .06 percent lower at $34.94. Electronic Arts (EA), which boomed yesterday with a surge of more than $5 a share, squeaked higher today by .22 percent, closing up 14 cents at $62.98. Jamdat (JMDT), which rallied 13.74 percent on Wednesday, dropped 2.66 percent today, closing at $19.42, 53 cents lower.

Stocks in Atari (ATAR), which just released a demo for its new PC title Act of War: Direct Action and also updated the Driver 3 narrative (now back on the company's production schedule for PCs), dropped 20 cents to $2.17, a difference of 8.44 percent. Midway (MWY) rose 31 cents to close at $9.31, up 3.44 percent for the day. Other significant movement was at the fringes of the game world, with Nokia up 6.21 percent, closing 89 cents higher at $15.22. This was despite news that the mobile-phone maker had seen fourth-quarter profits drop 13 percent. Graphics-card maker Nvidia, which recently announced new technology for notebook computers, closed 8.02 percent higher, up $1.70 at $22.91.