By Rex Crum
More losses from Palm Inc. kept the smartphone maker in the
spotlight Friday, but the broad tech sector gained enough steam in
late trading Friday to end the week, and the month on an upbeat
note.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) turned around from its early
losses to rise 4 points and close at 2,238, while the Philadelphia
Semiconductor Index (SOX) and the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index
(MSH) closed with small gains.
For the week, the Nasdaq gave up 0.6%, but rose almost 4% for
the month.
Analysts at UBS and Kaufman Bros. cut their ratings on Palm
(PALM), one day after the smartphone maker warned of disappointing
sales this year. Palm shares on Friday fell another 6.7%, to close
at $6.09 after surrendering almost 20% on Thursday.
UBS analyst Maynard Um cut his rating on Palm to sell from
neutral, saying that the company is suffering from a
weaker-than-expected launch of its Pre and other smartphones at
Verizon Wireless. Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu cited the same
reasons among why he cut his rating on Palm's stock to hold from
buy.
With Palm leading the decliners, losses also came from Dell Inc.
(DELL), Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), Oracle Corp. (ORCL) and Intel
Corp. (INTC).
Business-software company Novell Inc. (NOVL) gave up 11 cents a
share, or 2%, to slip to $4.70. Late Thursday, the company reported
its first-quarter earnings nearly doubled from a year ago to $20.2
million, or 6 cents a share. However, its sales fell by 6% to
$202.4 million.
Small gains came from IBM Corp. (IBM), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)
Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Seagate Technology (STX).