By Rex Crum
Technology stocks showed few signs of rallying in afternoon
trading Thursday, with Cisco Systems Inc. in the spotlight after
the networking-equipment giant reported a 46% drop in its fiscal
fourth-quarter earnings.
Cisco (CSCO) shares remained down by 4 cents to trade at $22.13
in the wake of the late-Wednesday report. Cisco earned $1.1
billion, or 19 cents a share, compared with $2 billion, or 33
cents, in the year-earlier period. Revenue fell to $8.5 billion
from $10.4 billion.
Despite the revenue and earnings declines, Chief Executive John
Chambers said the results could signal a "tipping point" in the
industry, and he suggested that business could be about to
improve.
With Cisco leading the decline, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite
Index (RIXF) fell 16 points to 1,97.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was down 1.2% and the
Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) was also in the red
Other losses came from bellwethers Apple Inc. (AAPL),
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), Microsoft Corp.
(MSFT), Dell Inc. (DELL), Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) and Intel Corp.
(INTC)
The few advancers included Yahoo Inc. (YHOO), Google Inc. (GOOG)
and Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI).
Activision's shares rose $1.l1, or 9.5%, to $12.64. Late
Wednesday, the videogame publisher reported better-than-expected
second-quarter results and affirmed its earnings forecast for the
rest of the year, even though it said it would delay the release of
its "StarCraft II" game until early 2010.