Oil worries help push e-commerce stocks down a slippery slope

E-commerce stocks gave up most of their gains for the year last week, as turmoil in the Middle East sent investors fleeing from technology stocks to safer havens.

After gaining 7% in the first seven weeks of the year, the Internet Retailer Online Retail Index plummeted by 5.62% last week, and is now up only about 1% for 2010. It was part of a flight from the volatile tech sector, as a Google index of technology stocks also lost more than 4% last week.

Some investors moved their money to blue chips, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted a gain of 0.32% while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced by 0.69%.

Among the 25 stocks tracked by the Online Retail Index, only one, that of online jewelry retailer Blue Nile, advanced for the week. NutriSystem shed more than a third of its value after an earnings report disappointed analysts.

Here are the best-performing stocks last week in the Online Retail Index and the percentage change in stock price for each:

• Blue Nile, +1.1%

• PetMed Express, -0.5%

• American Greetings, -1.3%

• VistaPrint, -1.9%

• U.S. Auto Parts Network, -2.0%

Here are the Online Retail Index stocks that performed least well last week and the percentage loss in stock price for the week:

• NutriSystem, -36.6%

• United Online, -13.6%

•Netflix, -9.8%

• Keynote Systems, -7.9%

•GSI, -6.5%

The 25 companies in the Internet Retailer Online Retail Index are: 1-800-Flowers.com Inc., Akamai Technologies, Amazon.com Inc., American Greetings Corp., Bidz.com Inc., Blue Nile Inc., Bluefly Inc., DemandTec Inc., Digital River Inc., Drugstore.com Inc., eBay Inc., GSI Commerce Inc., Keynote Systems Inc., LivePerson Inc., Netflix Inc., NutriSystem Inc., Overstock.com Inc., PetMed Express Inc., RealNetworks Inc., Shutterfly Inc., Systemax Inc., U.S. Auto Parts Network, United Online Inc. (owner of FTD.com), ValueClick Inc. and VistaPrint Ltd.