By Rex Crum
Technology stocks began to show some weakness in early trading
Monday as the sector awaited the latest quarterly results from
Apple Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) rose early, but
then fell 6 points to 2,150. The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index
(MSH) was up slightly, but the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index
(SOX) was in negative territory.
Gains came from Oracle Corp. (ORCL), Google Inc. (GOOG) and IBM
Corp. (IBM).
Decliners included Dell Inc. (DELL), Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO)
and Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ).
Much of the spotlight later in the day is expected to be on
Apple Inc. (AAPL) as the company is scheduled to deliver its
fourth-quarter results after the market closes. Apple's shares were
off less than 1% to $186.80.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect Apple to earn $1.42
a share on $9.2 billion in sales for the quarter. Sales of the
iPhone are expected to gain much of investors' attention.
TI (TXN) shares rose 51 cents, or about 2%, to $23.26 ahead of
the communication-chip maker's third-quarter results, due after the
market closes. Wall Street analysts estimate that TI will report a
17% drop in its quarterly sales compared to the same period a year
ago.