By Rex Crum
Tech stocks appeared headed toward closing out the month in a
rocky session on Tuesday, with the likes of Apple Inc. and
Hewlett-Packard Co. going back and forth and unable to find any
consistent direction.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) had a hard time keeping any
positive momentum, falling 2.5 points to 2,117. The tech-heavy
market gauge is down about 6% for the month.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) and the Morgan
Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) both dipped into the red. The
Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has shed almost 11%. The Morgan
Stanley High Tech 35 gauge is down 6.4%.
Apple (AAPL) rose 16 cents a share to $242.66, a day ahead of an
event in San Francisco in which the company is expected to unveil
new models and features of some of its iPod digital media players.
Apple's iPod unit sales have been declining, but revenue from the
devices is up as more customers have bought higher-end models like
the iPod touch, which uses WiFi technology to connect to the
Internet.
H-P (HPQ) edged up by 13 cents a share to $38.51. The company is
awaiting if Dell Inc. (DELL) plans to counter or raise H-P's
$30-a-share offer for 3Par Inc. (PAR), which the data-storage
company has said it plans to accept.
Dell shares were down 16 cents at $11.86, while 3Par was off by
21 cents a share at $31.62.
Before the market opened, technology research firm Gartner Inc.
released a report saying it expects worldwide PC sales to rise 19%
in 2010, to a total of 367.8 million units. Gartner said sales
growth is likely to slow in down through the second half of the
year.
Among other tech stocks, gains came from EMC Corp. (EMC), IBM
Corp. (IBM), Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) and Google Inc.
(GOOG).
Decliners included Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM), which fell
$1.80 a share, or almost 4%, to $43.85.
Before the market opened, analyst James Faucette at Pacific
Crest said in a research note that RIM's new BlackBerry Torch
smartphone has failed to boost the company's sales at AT&T Inc.
(T), which is the exclusive Torch carrier in the U.S. Also,
Bernstein Research analyst Pierre Ferragu cut his estimates and
lowered his price target on RIM's stock to $40 a share from $55,
saying the company is facing more threats from Apple's iPhone and
smartphones running on Google's Android operating system.
Hutchinson Technology Inc. (HTCH) shares fell 36 cents, or more
than 10%, to $3.09 a day after the maker of suspension assemblies
for hard-disk drives rose almost 30%.