By Rex Crum
Gains from Intel Corp. highlighted action in the tech sector
Wednesday, as the chip giant's stock rose as much as 5% following
the company's strong second-quarter earnings.
Intel (INTC) pulled back from its high point, but remained up by
almost $1 a share at $21.93 due to upbeat reaction to the company's
earnings, which came out late Tuesday. Intel said that for its
second-quarter, it earned $2.9 billion, or 51 cents a share, of
revenue of $10.8 billion.
During the same period a year ago, Intel lost $398 million, or 7
cents a share, on $8.02 billion in sales.
Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini said the company's results
were bolstered by strong gains from corporate customers.
With Intel in the lead, other tech stocks took to the high
ground. Hard-disk drive maker Seagate Technology (STX) and PC maker
Dell Inc. (DELL) each rose as much as 4%, and gains also came from
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), IBM Corp. (IBM), Apple Inc. (AAPL) and
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO).
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) rose 5 points to 2,247, while
the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) and the Philadelphia
Semiconductor Index (SOX) each rose about 1%.
One of the biggest decliners was Lexmark International (LXK),
which fell $3 a share, or more than 8%, to $32.20 after Morgan
Stanley analyst Katy Huberty cut her rating on the printing and
imaging company to underweight from equal weight. Huberty cited
more competition from Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) among the reasons
for the downgrade.