By Benjamin Pimentel
Technology stocks traded sideways early Friday, as shares of
Advanced Micro Devices advanced, but National Semiconductor's stock
declined.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) was up about 1 point at 2,085
at last check, boosted by AMD (AMD) stock which was up more than
3%.
But the sector was weighed down by another chip company's
shares, as National Semiconductor (NSM) fell more than 5% after the
semiconductor firm posted lower quarterly profit late Thursday.
"Despite printing and guiding ahead of consensus, we did not
detect an overt sense of optimism in management's tone," RBC
Capital Markets analyst Mahesh Sanganeria said in a note.
The Nasdaq was still up more than 2% for the week. Meanwhile,
the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) was up 0.4%, but the
Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was off 0.1%.
Among the early gainers were Amazon.com (AMZN), IBM Corp. (IBM)
and Oracle Corp. (ORCL).
Meanwhile, several tech players were in the red, including
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc.
(GOOG).