I mean the unlocking of the Internet's vast commercial potential-is winding down. It's not that the businesses connected to the Internet aren't big and growing. They are, of course. But the market is always looking forward, and it doesn't seem to see the same explosive growth ahead of it as it would have seen in 1998, when the net stock boom was on full swing. It saw great things to come back then, and now those great things are starting to happen.
Every new industry matures, however.
Its growth rate gradually subsides and the growth of the leading businesses slows accordingly. The stock market now may be coming to terms with this future. There's no easy way to tell when the last bubble has burst and stocks are ready again for a sustained rise. Market bottoms are hard to spot until well after they've occurred. But you can pick up useful signals from the way investors react to news, good or bad.