Are we supposed to be impressed with a 0.6% gain? I don't think soooo!
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4:43 p.m.: Old Tech Friends Spend Day Happily in the Green
The feeling today was that old friends are the best friends -- at least when it comes to tech stocks.
Technology stocks went higher, apparently helped by JDS Uniphase's (JDSU:Nasdaq) good report Thursday. Then tech stocks lost their surge, and investors sought refuge with some old familiar names like Hewlett-Packard (HWP:NYSE) , Microsoft (MSFT:Nasdaq) and Intel (INTC:Nasdaq) .
"I think a lot of fears were relieved with JDS. And they like the big tech names," said Tim Grazioso, manager of Nasdaq trading at Cantor Fitzgerald.
Intel ended up 3.8%, Hewlett-Packard ended 1.4% higher and Microsoft gained 5%. Fellow technology bellwether Sun Microsystems (SUNW:Nasdaq) also was up today, about 1.2%.
With semiconductors, however, volatility continues apace with semiconductors -- and it might stay that way for a while.
Many semiconductor stocks slid, as did the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index, which dipped 2.9%.
Chip-maker Teradyne (TER:NYSE) was one of the day's biggest losers, dropping 9.5% after a downgrade from buy to outperform by Lehman Brothers. Micron Technology (MU:NYSE) dropped 4.4% after Robertson Stephens downgraded the stock Friday from buy to attractive. Micron was downgraded Wednesday by Chase Hambrecht & Quist and Banc of America Securities.
Investors rotated into chip giants Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD:NYSE) , with AMD gaining more than 0.6%, finding comfort in familiar names in what has been a volatile semiconductor market in recent weeks.
It's a pattern that's likely to continue as the market strives for a way to measure performance in semiconductor stocks, analysts said.
Some of the measures used in the past -- for example, DRAM prices or cell phone growth -- no longer work as an effective measurement for most of the chipmakers, said analyst Susan Billat of Robertson Stephens, but some investors still "cling to the familiar."
Until the market can find ways to measure performance for each of the different parts of the sector, the volatility will continue, said analyst Drew Peck of SG Cowen. "Problems with one company donýt necessarily mean problems with another, because the end markets are very different."
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