Investors pushed the sell button on shares of NVidia Corp. on Friday after the graphics chip maker stirred up Enron-like jitters with news that it was the subject of a federal accounting investigation. Even as Wall Street brokerages rushed to defend the company and reiterated recommendations to buy the stock, the shares dropped $4.71, or 7.5 percent, to $57.45, on Nasdaq, where it was among the biggest net losers and most active issues. Even with Friday's stock drop, NVidia shares are still trading more than three times higher than in January of 2000.

In November, NVidia was hit by news of an inquiry into alleged insider trading by company employees. The latest SEC probe stemmed from the commission's review of e-mail messages NVidia had provided as part of the insider trading inquiry. On Thursday, NVidia said the SEC was looking into the timing of up to $3.6 million in product costs recorded in the second and third quarters of its 2001 fiscal year. In addition, the company said the SEC was examining the recording of reserves in the fourth quarter of its 2000 fiscal year should and the first quarter of its fiscal 2001 year. Nvidia's fiscal 2001 year ended in January 2001. The stock drop came despite Nvidia's report on Thursday of stronger-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2002 year. Profits more than doubled amid strong sales of the game consoles and computers that use its chips to display complex graphics.