Markets ease into the holidays

Technology stocks made a healthy run Wednesday in light pre-holiday trading, pushing the NASDAQ composite up 5.46 points to 1594.50.

The Dow slid back 14.17 points to 7794.78 after Asian markets made a slight recovery overnight. Also, the Commerce Department reported that gross domestic product grew 3.3 percent in October, down slightly from the initial estimate of 3.5 percent.

Intuit Inc. shares shot up $3.56 per share to $30.88 after posting a first-quarter loss of 26 cents per share, slightly better than analysts expected. Novell Inc. gained a modest 9 cents per share to $9.31 after beating Street estimates by a penny in its fourth quarter.

Microsoft Corp. gained $2.56 per share to $141.56 but Oracle Corp. and Netscape Communications Corp. lost 56 cents and 94 cents per share, respectively.

Investors shrugged off inventory worries in the PC sector, sending Compaq Computer Corp. up $2.75 per share to $61.94 and Dell Computer Corp. up $2.56 per share to $83.88. Gateway 2000 Inc. added 25 cent per share to $28.44 while Hewlett-Packard Co. lost $1 per share to $60.69.

Intel Corp. gained 19 cents per share to $76.63. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. shed 56 cents per share to $21.56 but IBM rallied to post a $2 per share gain to $109.38.

Cisco Systems Inc. and 3Com Corp., among the most actively traded issues, had mixed results. Cisco picked up 75 cents per share to $85.06 while 3Com dropped 25 cents to $34.63.

Yahoo! Inc. gained 6 cents per share to $50.88. Lycos Inc. was up $1.66 per share to $30.63 and Excite Inc. nudged up 47 cents to $25.59.