Stocks fell once again Tuesday on rising interest rates and oil prices, but a handful of tech stocks escaped the carnage on upgrades.
Red Hat surged 4.7% after Prudential said it expects strong results from the Linux vendor when it reports quarterly results next week. It was the second upgrade in two days for Red Hat.
AMD rose 3% after Sanford Bernstein said it expects significant growth from the company through 2006.
The broader market has hit hard for the second straight day after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the 11th time in 15 months and Hurricane Rita headed for the Gulf of Mexico.
The Nasdaq fell 14 to 2131, the S&P lost 9 to 1221, and the Dow tumbled 76 to 10,481. Volume rose to 2.3 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.88 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 22-10 on the NYSE, and 17-12 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 79% on the NYSE, and 62% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 238-119 on the NYSE, and 191-102 on the Nasdaq.
Google climbed 1% on Wi-Fi plans.
Activision fell 5.5% on insider selling.
Apple edged higher on an American Technology Research upgrade.