TECH STOCKS: Hewlett-Packard Rises To Lead Tech Rally
02/22/2013| 10:23am US/Eastern
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By Benjamin Pimentel, MarketWatch
Technology stocks were mostly higher Friday as shares of Hewlett-Packard Co. rose sharply on better-than-anticipated quarterly results.
H-P (>> Hewlett-Packard Company) was up 8% at $18.41 in early trades a day after beating Wall Street's expectations although analysts pointed to longer-term challenges for the technology powerhouse.
"H-P posted a surprising beat and raise quarter, albeit off a low bar with consensus looking for sizable year-over-year revenue and earnings-per-share declines," Sterne Agee's Shaw Wu said in a note. "Nonetheless we view it as progress made. The bad news is that all business segments declined and will likely continue to see pressure through fiscal year 2013."
H-P quickly emerged as the best performer on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) which was up 38 points at last check.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) was up 12 points, or 0.4%, to 3,145. The benchmark was on track to end the week with a 1.5% loss.
The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) was up 1%, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) rose 1.4%.
The chip sector got a lift from shares of Texas Instruments Inc. (>> Texas Instruments Incorporated) which were up more than 4% at $33.83. Late Thursday, the Dallas-based chip maker announced that it has hiked its quarterly dividend by 33%.
Another semiconductor company, Marvell Technology Group (>> Marvell Technology Group Ltd.), saw its stock rise 2% to $9.68 a day after posting upbeat results.
On the downside, shares of Netflix Inc. (>> Netflix, Inc.) were down nearly 4% at $180.36, one of the top decliners on the S&P 500 (SPX) which was up a fraction.
Shares of BlackBerry (RIMM), formerly known as Research In Motion, were also down 1.5% at $13.67. MKM Partners downgraded the stock to a sell from neutral on challenges posed by the company's BlackBerry 10 operating system.
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