By Benjamin Pimentel
Technology stocks slipped into the red Monday, as shares of Palm
Inc. and Nvidia Corp. tumbled, pushing back against the sector's
earlier advances.
Palm (PALM) fell 3.5% to $12.94, while Nvidia (NVDA) lost 2.8%
to close at $13.54, as the Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) tumbled
0.1% to 2,018.
The sector got a boost from Dell Inc. (DELL), shares of which
were up 2% after an analyst at Broadpoint AmTech raised his rating
on the stock to buy. The same analyst had upgraded Dell from a sell
rating in March.
"Two factors that kept us at neutral despite our recent positive
bias were the enterprise IT-demand environment and downward mix
shift in PCs," analyst Dinesh Moorjani wrote to clients. "We are
now more optimistic on the PC demand outlook and believe the
downward mix shift has played out for the most part."
Dell reports earnings results for the second fiscal quarter
Thursday.
AMD (AMD) was up 8.1% after Citigroup raised its rating for the
chip maker to buy from hold, citing a "favorable risk/reward
profile."
The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) was down 0.6%, while
the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) lost 0.8%.
Other gainers included Yahoo Inc. (YHOO), up 1.35%, Oracle Corp.
(ORCL), which added about 1% and Google Inc. (GOOG) up 0.75%.