By Rex Crum
Technology stocks began to show some signs of life in afternoon
trading Tuesday, as the Nasdaq Composite Index reached its highest
point in 10 months and the market awaited quarterly results from
video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc.
After falling 11 points early the Nasdaq (RIXF) came back and
was up more than 3 points at 2,011. The last time the tech-heavy
market gauge rose so high was Oct. 3, 2008.
The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) and the Philadelphia
Semiconductor Index (SOX) were also in positive territory.
Electronic Arts (ERTS) shares rose 48 cents, or 2.3%, to $22.05
ahead of the company's first-quarter earnings report. Analysts
surveyed by Thomson Reuters estimate EA will lose 14 cents a share
on almost $724 million in sales for the quarter.
However, those results would be an improvement over the same
period a year ago, when EA lost 42 cents a share on revenue of $609
million. EA's results are expected to be helped by strong sales of
games associated with Nintendo's Wii video game console.
Other tech companies scheduled to report results after the
market close are BMC Software Inc. (BMC), Glu Mobile Inc. (GLUU)
and Molex Inc. (MOLX).
Semiconductor stocks, which were mostly in the red early, also
staged a bit of a comeback. Gains came from Advanced Micro Devices
Inc. (AMD), Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) and Nvidia Corp.
(NVDA).
Gains also came from Dell Inc. (DELL), NetApp Inc. (NTAP), Yahoo
Inc. (YHOO) and Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE).