Blue chips escaped with gains Tuesday despite surging wholesale inflation, a Thai currency scare and an unexpected loss that sent Circuit City shares tumbling.
Tech stocks might have followed blue chips into the green, but a 4.5% loss in shares of Oracle weighed on the sector.
Oracle reported quarterly results late Monday that were in line with Wall Street expectations, but analysts were looking for stronger new software license sales, an important indicator of future results.
The broader market escaped an early sell-off on news that wholesale inflation last month posted its biggest jump in 30 years.
IAC InterActiveCorp fell 4% on its outlook, and Applied Signal
fell 14% on its results.
Tom Online rose 12% on a deal with eBay
.
After the close, Palm shares were unchanged after the company beat estimates but issued a weaker than expected forecast.
The Nasdaq lost 6 to 2429, the S&P 500 gained 3 to 1425, and the Dow rose 30 to 12,471. Volume rose to 2.72 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.04 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 17-15 on the NYSE, but decliners led 17-13 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 58% on the NYSE, and 38% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 151-21 on the NYSE, and 76-47 on the Nasdaq.
