By Benjamin Pimentel
Tech stocks came to life late in the session Thursday, as many
sector leaders closed with gains after earlier being pummeled by
losses led by eBay Inc. and EMC Corp.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) climbed 14.6 points
to close at 2,165, while the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index
(MSH) and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) also closed in
positive territory.
EBay (EBAY) still remained off by $1.04 a share, or 4%, at
$23.99 a day after the company issued a weaker-than-expected
outlook.
EMC Corp. (EMC) also fell, giving up 18 cents a share to close
at $17.33 after the storage-technology company reported lower
third-quarter profit.
However, shares of Apple Inc. (AAPL) turned around to rise 28
cents to $205.20 after earlier trading in the red.
Nokia Corp. (NOK) filed suit against Apple, alleging the iPhone
violates 10 Nokia technology patents.
Other companies closing with gains included Hewlett-Packard
(HPQ), Oracle Corp. (ORCL), Google Inc. (GOOG) and Advanced Micro
Devices (AMD).
Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and communications-chip
maker Broadcom Corp. (BRCM) both saw their shares rise ahead of
quarterly results due after the market close.
Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) rose $1.25 a share, or 3.5%, to $37.10
after the semiconductor equipment maker reported a higher quarterly
profit.
Gains also came from Dell Inc. (DELL), IBM Corp. (IBM) and Cisco
Systems (CSCO).
And Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) managed to squeeze in a gain of a
penny a share to close at $26.59 on the day it launched Windows 7,
the latest version of its flagship PC operating system.