By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A day-long rally in the tech
sector ran out of gas late in the session Tuesday, cutting the legs
off of broad gains that had been fueled by positive reaction to an
agreement between President Obama and congressional Republicans on
extending tax cuts and renewing jobless benefits for many
Americans.
The compromise will extend the Bush-era tax cuts for two years
and unemployment insurance for 13 months. The deal still needs to
approved by all of Congress.
The upbeat sentiment helped lift the Nasdaq Composite Index
(RIXF), but the tech-heavy market gauge had its sails trimmed,
closing with a gain of just 3.6 points at 2,598. The Philadelphia
Semiconductor Index (SOX) closed with a slight loss and the Morgan
Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) edged just above its breakeven
point at the closing bell
Gains came from Oracle Corp. (ORCL), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT),
Seagate Technology (STX) and Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM).
Google Inc. (GOOG) rose $8.78 a share to close at $587.14 a day
after the company launched its long-awaited eBooks store as a
competitor to Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and its Kindle bookstore and
reader.
Advances also came from electronics contract manufacturer Jabil
Circuit Inc. (JBL), which rose 70 cents a share, or more than 4%,
to $17.05, and Compellent Technologies Inc. (CML), which climbed by
$4.91 a share, or more than 17%, to $33.53 after Pacific Crest
analyst Brent Bracelin raised his rating on the data-storage
technology company to buy, and should see gains from the growth of
virtualization in data centers.
Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) rose 46 cents a share to $33.41
ahead of the chipmaker's mid-quarter update after the market close.
Chip-equipment maker Novellus Systems Inc. (NVLS), which also give
a mid-quarter update after the market close, edged up by 2 cents a
share to close at $31.77.