Stocks tumbled Friday on news that the economy lost another half million jobs last month, but Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) continued its two-day rocket ride.
Palm shares soared 34%, for a two-day gain of 80%, on optimism that its new operating system and smart phone can reverse market shares losses to Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL).
But the rest of the tech sector led the market lower on news that the economy lost more than 500,000 jobs again last month, for total job losses of 2.6 million last year, and a decline in the average work week suggests that there are more job losses to come.
The Nasdaq’s 2.8% loss led the market, while the S&P shed 2.1% and the Dow 1.6%.
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) and Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) led the Nasdaq lower, with losses of about 5% each.
Rambus (NASDAQ: RMBS) plunged 39% after a setback in a patent case against Micron (NYSE: MU).
But Level 3 (NASDAQ: LVLT) gained 13% after the company said it is well capitalized, and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) edged higher on a Wall Street Journal report that it could name a new CEO soon.
The Nasdaq fell 45 to 1571, the S&P 500 tumbled 19 to 890, and the Dow fell 143 to 8599. Volume declined to 4.79 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.95 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by a 26-11 margin on the NYSE, and 20-7 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 85% on the NYSE, and 76% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 14-58 on the NYSE, and 16-32 on the Nasdaq.
