Shares of 3Com (NASDAQ: COMS) and AMD (NYSE: AMD) soared on Thursday even as the rest of the stock market was battered.
AMD was up more than 20 percent on news of a settlement with Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), and 3Com soared 30 percent on a merger deal with HP (NYSE: HPQ).
But HP and Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) fell despite reporting better than expected quarterly results, and Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) lost ground on worries about new competition from HP.
Brocade was also lower on concern that it lost a potential merger partner in HP, but Wedbush Morgan analysts said Juniper (NASDAQ: JNPR) could be a good match for Brocade. Juniper shares were also lower on the day.
JDS Uniphase (NASDAQ: JDSU) surged 7 percent on speculation that it could become the next takeover target.
Former 3Com spin-off Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) shed 4.6 percent.
STEC (NASDAQ: STEC) finally bounced after a long decline on inventory and competition concerns.
The Nasdaq lost 17 to 2149, the S&P 500 fell 11 to 1087, and the Dow lost 93 to 10,197. Volume declined to 4.16 billion shares on the NYSE, and rose to 2.24 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by a 25-6 margin on the NYSE, and 20-6 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 85 percent on the NYSE, and 64 percent on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 206-37 on the NYSE, and 67-49 on the Nasdaq.