Chip Stocks Gain as Rally Stalls

Chip stocks posted strong gains Thursday on hopes for a recovery, but the rest of the market gave back its gains after Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection.

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT), Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL), Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) and Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) were among the gainers on the latest signs of hope for the chip sector.

And several tech stocks posted gains of 10% or more on stronger than expected quarterly results, including Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM), Citrix (NASDAQ: CTXS) and Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE).

Seagate (NYSE: STX) jumped nearly 10% on a Stifel Nicolaus upgrade, while Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) and Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) rallied on optimism about upcoming product launches.

But the day also included a number of sizeable declines on disappointing earnings reports, including Quantum (NYSE: QTM), JDS Uniphase (NASDAQ: JDSU), Motorola (NYSE: MOT) and Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC).

And Disney (NYSE: DIS) gained 4% on a deal with Hulu.

The Nasdaq added 5 to 1717, the S&P 500 slipped 1 to 872, and the Dow gave back 17 to 8168. Volume declined to 8.6 billion shares on the NYSE, and rose to 3.36 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by a 21-16 margin on the NYSE, while decliners held a slight edge on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 53% on the NYSE, and 65% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 20-78 on the NYSE, and 30-21 on the Nasdaq.