By Rex Crum
The tech sector gave up much of its attempt to advance Tuesday,
as losses took over the market ahead of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s
second-quarter earnings report, due after the close.
H-P (HPQ) fell 33 cents a share to $47.20 with its earnings on
tap. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research estimate H-P will earn
$1.06 a share on $29.86 billion in sales for its fiscal second
quarter.
Decliners also included EMC Corp. (EMC), Seagate Technology
(STX), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Dell Inc. (DELL) and Cisco Systems
Inc. (CSCO)
QAD Inc. (QADI) shares fell 58 cents, or more than 10%, at $5.13
after the maker of software for manufacturers gave a
weaker-than-expected quarterly forecast. The company now expects to
lose 4 cents to 5 cents a share on $50 million to $51 million in
sales, down from earlier estimates of a profit of 3 cents a share
on $54 million in revenue.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) stumbled, falling more than 21
points to 2,332. The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index(MSH) was off
by 1% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) gave up
2%.
The few gainers included International Business Machines
Corp.(IBM), JDS Uniphase Inc. (JDSUD) and RightNow Technologies
Inc. (RNOW)
RightNow rose 70 cents a share, or 4.6%, to $16.10 after FBR
Capital Markets analyst David Hilal raised his rating on the
software firm to outperform from market perform. Hilal said that he
expects RightNow to get more deals involving contact centers for
customer-service operations and sign more bookings in the coming
months.