A warning from AMD and a downgrade to Cisco
on Tuesday had investors wondering if the expected recovery in technology spending will materialize.
AMD slashed its revenue forecast for the June quarter from $715 million to $615 million.
“The anticipated global sales improvement in the month of June did not materialize,” AMD CFO Robert Rivet said in a statement. “In particular, the decline in personal computer and handset sell-through in China and other Asian markets, largely related to the SARS epidemic, significantly affected AMD’s sales in the second quarter.”
AMD’s warning of SARS’ effect follows similar warnings earlier this month from wireless companies.
Also on Tuesday, Cisco fell 2.8% after Soundview said it sees little evidence of a second-half recovery.
The news weighed on technology shares, but blue chips finished higher on a better than expected consumer confidence reading. The Federal Reserve will announce its decision on interest rates at 2:15 p.m. tomorrow, and analysts are sharply divided over whether the Fed will cut interest rates by 25 or 50 basis points.
The Nasdaq slipped 5 to 1605, the S&P 500 added 1 to 983, and the Dow rose 36 to 9109. Volume rose to 1.4 billion shares on the NYSE, but declined to 1.62 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 17-15 on the NYSE, and 16-15 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 53% on the NYSE, and 33% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 82-10 on the NYSE, and 84-10 on the Nasdaq.
After the close, Palm crushed estimates, and Verity
plunged on a warning.
During the day, Portal Software surged 16% on an alliance with Microsoft
. Microsoft, which finished down 0.4%, named a new chief privacy strategist.
AT&T Wireless rose 2.3% on a deal with Dell
.
eBay , off 0.4%, launched keyword advertising. DoubleClick
edged higher on the deal, but finished well off its highs.
Ciena rose 2.1% on an upgrade.
SanDisk and FindWhat.com
continued to find favor with investors.
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