Tech stocks back in favour
Technology stocks continued their recent hot streak on Wednesday as the Nasdaq composite motored up 153 points to 4,864.58. The Dow Jones industrial average closed off 41 points to 10,866.70.
"The Dow is down because of the extent of its move yesterday," said Barry Hyman, market strategist at Ehrenkrantz King Nussbaum. "There is a little resistance at the 11,000 level. You are seeing a lot of the tech stocks that were annihilated coming back. They are seen as not being as sensitive to interest rates as 'old economy' companies."
Semiconductor stocks were especially popular on Wednesday as Rambus shot up 83 11/16, or 31 percent, to 350 1/4 after being battered down on Tuesday over troubles in Taiwan.
Intel moved up 5 5/8 to 144 1/16 and AMD gained 1 3/4 to 56 9/16.
Micron Technology rallied up 20 1/4 to 139 1/2 as Wall Street shrugged off an earnings shortfall from the world's number two computer memory chip manufacturer.
Among widely held PC stocks, Dell Computer inched up 3/16 to 58 3/16; Compaq Computer rose 1 3/8 to 31 7/8; Gateway trimmed 3/4 to 62 11/16; and Apple Computer closed up 9 1/4 to 144 3/16.
InSilicon, the spin-off of Pheonix Technology's semiconductor intellectual property unit, moved up 9 9/16, or 80 percent, to 21 9/16 in its initial public offering (IPO).
Microsoft gained 1/2 to 103 1/4, Sun Microsystems closed off 2 1/2 to 96 3/4 and Oracle ended up 3 5/16 to 84.
PSINet shed 7 15/16 to 41 9/16 after announcing it will buy business software and service company Metamor Worldwide, along with its electronic commerce software affiliate Xpedior, for $1.9bn (£1.18m). Metamor shares rose 17 5/16 to 33 5/16, while Xpedior shot up 7 11/16 to 21 15/16.
Santa Cruz Operation fell 2 5/8 to 10 7/16 after it announced on Tuesday that second quarter and year end sales will be significantly lower than expected.
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