Nokia battered, US telcos recover and Easy when you know how

NEWS Nokia's decline makes many of the morning's papers, as it raises fears for the knock on effect upon already beleaguered European technology markets. The Guardian attributes the decline to a profits warning from Motorola and the extent to which Nokia's news in turn will effect other major players in the sector will no doubt become apparent during today's trading... Shares moving in the right direction can be found in the US telecoms sector where the Financial Times reports on a rallying on the markets after a period of decline. AT&T has seen a 30 per cent rise in its share price with Worldcom and Sprint also following suit to make recoveries on the losses incurred during December... The Guardian also reports on resurgence of sorts, with news that Virtual Internet, who suffered a dramatic slump in its share price last year, has begun the new year determined to recover its losses. As such the company, who now claims to have turned the corner, has appointed former LineOne boss Ajay Chowdhury to its board. News of Chowdhury's appointment saw shares in the domain name, brand and trademark group rise by 7.5p to 122p, however, this is still well short of the company's £9 high of last year which fell after a number of failed product launches. The extent of Chowdhury's impact in revitalising the company will be unclear, coinciding as it does with the introduction of new top level domain names which should greatly increase business for the company. Either way, Virtual Internet would seem to be moving in the right direcion... Finally, news of Easyjet who has announced a 29 per cent increase in sales for December 2000. The increase on its figures for the same month the previous year is largely attributable to the company's investment in its ecommerce channels. The Metro reports that online sales for December accounted for 89 per cent of its business - up from 47 per cent for December 1999...