Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) shares surged 10% Thursday after the company posted better than expected quarterly results, but the rest of the market took the day off as traders booked profits.
Oracle gained after reporting that sales rose 2% to a better than expected $5.5 billion, and earnings of 35 cents a share also topped forecasts. The company also declared its first dividend, but middleware and database licensing sales were weaker than expected.
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) tacked on 1% on a new browser.
Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) slipped 3% a day after soaring 79% on reports that it could be acquired by IBM (NYSE: IBM).
Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) climbed more than 3% on a new app store and reports that a new BlackBerry could be on the way.
Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) rose 3.7% on an upgrade, but Sohu (NASDAQ: SOHU) and Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) fell on downgrades.
Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) gained 4.4%, while Marvell (NASDAQ: MRCL) shed 6.2%.
After the close, Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) fell 5% on its results.
The broader market slumped as traders worried about a reverse split at Citigroup (NYSE: C) and a House bill that heavily taxes bonuses at companies receiving government bailouts. Financial shares led the way lower. Traders also debated the effect of the Federal Reserve’s plan to inject more than $1 trillion into the treasury and mortgage security markets.
The Nasdaq slipped 7 to 1483, the S&P 500 fell 10 to 784, and the Dow lost 85 to 7400. Volume declined to 10.19 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.35 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by an 18-17 margin on the NYSE, while decliners led 15-12 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 60% on the NYSE, and 62% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 5-29 on the NYSE, and 11-38 on the Nasdaq.