By Rex Crum
Many leading technology stocks advanced in afternoon trading
Friday as SanDisk Corp. gains and from Palm Inc. losses continued
to highlight the sector's action.
SanDisk (SNDK) shares climbed as much as 5%, to $22.50, shortly
after Bank of America/Merrill Lynch analyst Simon Dong-je Woo
raised his rating on the flash-memory developer to buy from
underperform. Woo said the company appears poised for earnings and
revenue growth due to changes in the market for memory
products.
In addition to SanDisk, gains also came from Hewlett-Packard Co.
(HPQ), Oracle Corp. (ORCL), IBM Corp. (IBM), Apple Inc. (AAPL) and
Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN).
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) shook off early
losses to rise 11 points to 2,137, while the Morgan Stanley High
Tech 35 Index (MSH) also edged upward. The Philadelphia
Semiconductor Index (SOX) climbed almost 2%.
Palm (PALM) led the decliners, falling 51 cents a share, or
3.6%, to $13.91.
Late Thursday, Palm reported a first-quarter loss that grew from
the year-ago period, but its sales turned out to be better than
expected. Much of the revenue improvement was said to be based on
strong sales of the new Pre smartphone, which is sold exclusively
through Sprint.
However, Palm offered a second-quarter sales outlook that failed
to meet Wall Street analysts' forecasts. Company officials also
said they were working on new devices for other wireless
carriers.
Declines also came from Dell Inc. (DELL), Advanced Micro Devices
Inc. (AMD) and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO).