Hardware, chips fall apart near close
By Chris Kraeuter & August Cole, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 5:05 PM ET April 24, 2002
marketwatch.com
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - Hardware and chip stocks tumbled on Wednesday afternoon as the broad market lost all momentum.
Chip stocks led the technology sector to the downside with equipment makers the biggest losers.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX: news, chart, profile) dropped 3.8 percent while the Goldman Sachs Hardware Index ($GHA: news, chart, profile) slipped 2 percent.
In the background, the latest round of March durable goods ordered showed a decline; the data excluded semiconductor orders. See full story.
Chips
Equipment stocks lost the most on Wednesday afternoon. Applied Materials (AMAT: news, chart, profile) shed 3.5 percent to $25, KLA-Tencor (KLAC: news, chart, profile) dropped 4.6 percent to $60.31, Novellus (NVLS: news, chart, profile) dipped 2.4 percent to $48.40 and Teradyne (TER: news, chart, profile) dropped 5.3 percent to $32.85.
The late sell-off really left no one in the chip arena untouched. Micron (MU: news, chart, profile) dropped 7.1 percent to $27.30. Lattice Semi (LSCC: news, chart, profile), down for most of the session, ended buried with a loss of 5.4 percent to $11.50 - a 34-month low.
Though the earnings roster is nearly run through, Applied Micro Circuits (AMCC: news, chart, profile) extended its losses to reflect a decline of 6.9 percent to $6.65 after quarterly results matched Wall Street's consensus loss estimates. See full story.
Also Fairchild Semiconductor (FCS: news, chart, profile) failed to maintain positive momentum from last night's earnings report. Shares fell 4.3 percent to $27.98. The analog chipmaker posted a narrower-than-expected loss and indicated that business has been improving. See full story.
Qualcomm also reported results this morning. The cell phone maker also makes and licenses code-division multiple access semiconductor technology. During the quarter, Qualcomm shipped 14 million of its so-called mobile station modem chips -- the high end of its previously estimated 13 million to 14 million range. See full story. |
