Intel Sends Chip Stocks Tumbling

Intel’s (NASDAQ: INTC) much stronger than expected quarterly results became an excuse for investors to sell on Friday.

Intel shares lost 3 percent, while rival AMD (NYSE: AMD) also traded lower, after investors figured that Intel’s earnings and gross margins couldn’t get any better.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT), Micron (NYSE: MU) and SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) lost even more, falling around 5 percent each.

Not all stocks followed the chip giant lower, however. Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) shares surged nearly 6 percent after Verizon announced cheaper wireless pricing plans. Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) also edged higher.

Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) continued to add to gains on Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) threat to pull out of China.

PFSweb (NASDAQ: PFSW) shares doubled on an online retailing venture with Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG).

FalconStor (NASDAQ: FALC) tumbled 18 percent on disappointing results.

Next week will see earnings reports from IBM (NYSE: IBM) on Tuesday, eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) and Seagate (NASDAQ: STX) on Wednesday, and AMD, Google and Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) on Thursday, among other tech names reporting results.

The Nasdaq lost 28 to 2287, the S&P 500 lost 12 to 1136, and the Dow fell 100 to 10,609. Volume rose to 4.76 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.69 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by a 27-11 margin on the NYSE, and 19-7 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 82 percent on the NYSE, and 78 percent on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 224-31 on the NYSE, and 102-10 on the Nasdaq.