Jabil (NYSE: JBL) shares soared 36% Wednesday on signs of stabilization, while the rest of the market ended higher as traders weighed better than expected economic reports against unexpectedly weak demand for government debt.
Jabil shares were sharply higher after the contract manufacturer for Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), HP (NYSE: HPQ) and other tech giants said it sees orders stabilizing.
The rest of the market seesawed between big gains and losses, finally ending the day in the green, as stronger than expected new home sales and durable orders eventually outweighed weak demand for U.S. and UK debt, which could complicate economic recovery efforts.
IBM (NYSE: IBM) ended down after nearly touching $100 a share after the company said it plans to cut 5,000 more jobs.
Seagate (NYSE: STX) continued to gain on merger speculation, up nearly 5%. Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT), KLA-Tencor (NASDAQ: KLAC) and Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) rose nearly 4% each.
But profit-taking appeared to be the order of the day elsewhere. Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), EMC (NYSE: EMC), Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM), Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM), Sun (NASDAQ: JAVA) and Juniper (NASDAQ: JNPR) each lost 2% or more. RIM got hit by a JP Morgan downgrade.
Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) and TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO) both gained on a movie download partnership.
After the close, Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) rose 7% on its results.
The Nasdaq rose 12 to 1528, the S&P 500 gained 7 to 813, and the Dow climbed 89 to 7749. Volume rose to 9.19 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.48 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by a 24-12 margin on the NYSE, and 18-8 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 66% on the NYSE, and 61% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 16-91 on the NYSE, and 14-32 on the Nasdaq.