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NEW YORK -- Investors awaiting the release of Intel's earnings took some bets on blue-chip stocks today, but otherwise traded cautiously in high-tech and Internet sectors. Dow up 127
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Pharmaceutical and manufacturing stocks advanced, while technology issues languished on concerns about what Intel's earnings forecast would look like.
"We would expect to see investors rotate away from technology stocks, leading up to a major bellwether announcement like Intel's," said Matt Brown, head of equity management at Wilmington Trust. "The tone on technology has been negative for awhile. No one knows how deep this slowdown is going to be and Intel's forecast may give us a better idea of what to expect."
The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 127.28 at 10,652.66. The Nasdaq composite index was off 7.95 at 2,618.55 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 8.33 to 1,326.65. Advancers led decliners 5 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,739 up, 1,198 down and 382 unchanged. Volume was 1.20 billion shares vs. 1.27 billion on Friday. The NYSE composite index rose 5.82 to 650.18, the American Stock Exchange composite index jumped 11.27 to 911.57 and the Russell 2000 index rose 7.53 to 493.28. The Treasury's 10-year note rose 2/32 to 103 27/32; its yield fell 1 basis point to 5.23 percent. The 30-year bond rose 13/32 to 109 11/32; its yield fell 3 basis points to 5.60 percent.
Intel, which fell 88 cents to $31.25 in regular trading, posted fourth-quarter results that just beat already-lowered expectations and forecast first-quarter sales would fall about 15 percent from the fourth-quarter level.
Intel , which warned on Dec. 7 that fourth-quarter sales would not meet expectations, reported earnings excluding acquisition-related costs of $2.63 billion, or 38 cents a share, vs. $2.39 billion, or 34 cents a share. On that basis, the results beat the consensus analyst forecast of 37 cents a share, as compiled by First Call/Thomson Financial.
Intel said its fourth-quarter sales rose 6 percent to $8.70 billion from $8.21 billion a year ago.