Stocks staged a modest rebound Tuesday on hopes that global central bank action can stem the credit market crisis.
A $500 billion credit infusion from the European Central Bank helped stabilize stocks a day before investors get the results of a Federal Reserve credit auction. Meanwhile, the Fed proposed tighter mortgage lending standards, too late to help the current credit crunch, and Best Buy and Goldman Sachs issued cautious outlooks that kept slowdown fears alive.
Adobe helped boost the tech sector, gaining 2.8% on better than expected results and guidance.
Oracle gained 1.5% ahead of its results due out late Wednesday. Analysts are looking for 19.5% sales growth to $5.04 billion from the enterprise software giant and earnings of 27 cents a share. The company’s results will be an important indicator of the health of enterprise IT spending.
Emcore surged 19% after buying Intel’s optical laser unit.
Qwest added 3.6% after upping its capital spending plans. Level 3 gained 6%.
AMD shares remained under pressure, falling 3.4%.
Garmin fell 7% on reports of lost market share.
After the close, Palm missed estimates on lower than expected smart phone sales and lowered its guidance.
The Nasdaq recouped 21 to 2596, the S&P rose 9 to 1455, and the Dow gained 65 to 13,232. Volume rose to 3.66 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.02 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by a 19-12 margin on the NYSE, and 18-12 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 64% on the NYSE, and 68% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 23-370 on the NYSE, and 48-355 on the Nasdaq.