Chip Stocks Jump on Intel Upgrade
biz.yahoo.com
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Semiconductor stocks rose on Tuesday as investors cheered an analyst upgrade on No. 1 chip maker Intel Corp (NasdaqNM:INTC - News) and a reaffirmation of Texas Instruments Inc.'s (NYSE:TXN - News) guidance on second-quarter revenues.
The market has also set high hopes for the earnings report by Applied Materials Inc., (NasdaqNM:AMAT - News) the world's largest maker of equipment used in the production of semiconductors, expected later on Tuesday.
The Philadelphia Stock Exchange semiconductor index (Philadelphia:^SOXX - News) rose for the third straight day, up 27.93 points, or 5.6 percent, to 537.53.
On Nasdaq, Intel stock rose $1.28, or 4.5 percent, to $29.80, while Applied Materials shares rose $1.22, or 4.8 percent, to $26.80. Texas Instruments shares rose $1.51, or 5 percent, to $31.78 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Earlier in the day, Robertson Stephens analyst Eric Rothdeutsch raised his rating on Intel to "buy" from "market perform," saying the company "appears to be forgoing" a price cut on its Pentium 4 microprocessor in the third quarter.
It would be the first time since the peak of the 1995-1996 semiconductor cycle that Intel skipped a price cut on its mainstream desktop computer processor, Rothdeutsch said in a research note.
Texas Instruments reconfirmed its second-quarter financial guidance on Tuesday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, saying it expected revenue to grow 10 percent to $2 billion.
wbmw |
