After weeks of volatility, stocks returned somewhat to normal on Monday, ending slightly higher as credit market fears took the day off.
Stronger than expected results from Lowe’s helped calm housing market fears for a day, while some notable technology names also scored big gains.
Research in Motion continued to pace tech gains, soaring 7% after Goldman Sachs raised estimates, while Intel
continued to benefit from last week’s Credit Suisse upgrade.
However, Microsoft and Cisco
didn’t get much mileage out of their pledge to cooperate.
Transmeta jumped on news of a new CFO.
WNS continued to fall on concerns that the credit crunch will slow financial services IT spending.
The Nasdaq added 3 to 2508, the S&P 500 was down fractionally to 1445, and the Dow gained 42 to 13,121. Volume declined to 3.31 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.73 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancing issues led by a 19-13 margin on the NYSE, and 15-14 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 53% on the NYSE, and 58% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 20-99 on the NYSE, and 41-105 on the Nasdaq.