Better than expected earnings from IBM and a strong manufacturing report saved the market from a sell-off on Thursday.
IBM surged 5% after beating estimates, offsetting lukewarm reports from Intel , Yahoo
, Apple
and QLogic
.
Rumors that Osama bin Laden could be captured also boosted the market in a volatile session ahead of options expiration.
The Nasdaq lost 2 to 2109, the S&P 500 climbed 1 to 1132, and the Dow rose 15 to 10,553. Volume rose to 1.7 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.23 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by a few issues on the NYSE, while advancers led 16-15 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 52% on the NYSE, and 49% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 439-3 on the NYSE, and 330-5 on the Nasdaq.
After the close, Juniper , Sun
, Rambus
, Transmeta
, Cree
and Visual Networks
beat estimates, while Lionbridge
missed. Texas Instruments
announced a new CEO.
During the day, Teradyne and Extreme Networks
climbed on better than expected results.
AsiaInfo gained 8% on a contract win.
HP rose 2.4% on strong Linux sales.
And Dell fell on news that HP is back on top in global PC sales.
Market Commentary: For our free daily market commentary and technical analysis, please visit the InternetStockReport.com home page at:
http://www.InternetStockReport.com.