Tech stocks swoon as chips retreat
By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
marketwatch.com
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Tech stocks appeared headed for another down day on Tuesday, as losses from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Applied Materials Inc. led to negativity toward the sector’s performance.
AMD -10.14% shares fell 57 cents, or more than 10%, to $5.04 after the chip maker pre-announced its second-quarter results that included weaker-than-expected sales Read more about AMD results.
AMAT -1.73% shares were trimmed by 16 cents, or 1.5%, to $10.85 after the world’s largest chip-equipment maker said it expects its annual sales to fall below prior estimates. Read more about Applied Materials new forecast.
MTSN -30.00% was also taking it on the chin, as the chip-equipment maker’s shares fell by 50 cents, or 30%, to $1.17. The company cut its second-quarter sales and earnings forecasts, due mainly to delay in products from one customer.
Other chip stocks in the red included Micron Technology Inc. MU -5.09% and Rambus Inc. RMBS -4.69% , both of which saw their shares fall by at least 4.5%. Declines also came from Nvidia Corp. NVDA -1.71% , TXN -0.47% and ARMH -2.22% .
The chip weakness began to pull on tech-heavy market gauges. The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP -0.41% , which had a double-digit gain after the market opened, gave up all of that to fall more than 8 points to 2,923. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index SOX -1.54% was off by 1.4%.
ASML Holdinig N.V.ASML +9.03% was one of the tech sector’s few bright spots, as its shares rose $4.34, or almost 9%, to $52.81 after Intel Corp. INTC -1.72% said Monday that it would invest more than $3 billion in the Dutch chip maker, and fund another $1 billion in research and development activities at the company. The latter investment is centered around the development of 450-millimeter wafer technology and extreme ultraviolet lithography. Read more about Intel's dealings with ASML
Intel shares fell 45 cents to $25.72, but AMD and Applied Materials scored even greater losses.
Among other tech stocks, Research In Motion Ltd.RIMM -4.83% shares were down by 36 cents, or 4.7%, at $7.30. The troubled maker of the BlackBerry smartphone started its annual shareholders meeting Tuesday, and its board made a statement of support for RIM’s current management team.
Small gains came from Apple Inc. AAPL +0.01% Oracle Corp. ORCL -0.03% and Western Digital Corp.WDC +1.68% . |
