By Rex Crum
Losses from the likes of Texas Instruments Inc. and Broadcom
Corp. highlighted a down day for tech stocks as the sector felt the
broad-market impact of the debt crisis in southern Europe.
TI (TXN) gave up 44 cents a share, or 1.6%, to fall to $26.73
even though the communications chipmaker posted upbeat earnings
results late Monday. Some analysts expressed concern about the chip
market's ability to maintain its momentum through the rest of the
year.
Broadcom (BRCM) shares gave up 90 cents, or 2.5%, to fall to
$26.76 ahead of the chipmaker's quarterly results, due after the
market close.
Nearly every major tech stock was in the red. IBM (IBM) shares
gave up 67 cents to slip to $130.06 even after the company said its
board of directors approved hiking IBM's quarterly dividend by 18%
to 65 cents a share and buying back $8 billion in shares.
With the new stock buyback plan, IBM will have about $10 billion
at its disposal to repurchase stock.
Research In Motion Ltd.'s (RIMM) U.S. shares gave up 76 cents to
fall to $71.92. Late Monday, the company showed off an upcoming
version of a new operating system for its BlackBerry smartphones to
a group of industry analysts.
Declines also came from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Apple Inc.
(AAPL), Dell Inc. (DELL), Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) and Yahoo Inc.
(YHOO).
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) fell more than 40 points, or
1.7%, to 2,482. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was down
2.7% and the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) shed almost
2%.
At the heart of the market's decline was Standard & Poor's
cutting its rating on Greece to junk status. Also adding to the
losses were concerns about the U.S. housing market and the
testimony of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) executives on Capitol
Hill.
One of the few advancers was printing and imaging company
Lexmark International Group Inc. (LXK).Lexmark's shares rose 51
cents to $41.47 following the printing and imaging company's
first-quarter earnings report.
Before the market opened, Lexmark said it earned $95.3 million,
or $1.20 a share, on $1.04 billion in sales for the quarter, up
from earnings of $59.2 million, or 75 cents a share, on revenue of
$944 million in the same period a year ago.
Telecom-equipment company Tellabs Inc. (TLAB) climbed 52 cents a
share, or more than 6%, to $8.74 after the company reported
stronger-than-expected first-quarter results.