Hope that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates later this month to stave off a recession helped stabilize blue chip stocks on Monday, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Nasdaq from falling for a seventh consecutive day, its longest losing streak since June 2006.
The culprit was a tech sector downgrade by UBS, which predicted lower server and PC spending as the economy slows.
The downgrade hit shares of IBM, Sun, Dell, EMC, Network Appliance, HP and VMware. HP and Dell lost more than 3% each, while EMC, NetApp and VMware lost 6-9%.
Intel was a bright spot, adding 1% after a 15% decline last week.
DTS jumped 12% on new sound technology unveiled at CES, and Sony was up 3% on Blu-Ray gains.
Avocent plunged 22% on a sales warning. Nvidia and Virgin Media were the Nasdaq 100’s biggest losers, off 10% and 8%, respectively. NetSuite lost 11%.
NII Holdings was up 9.6% on a share buyback and new CEO.
CNET was off 1% on a bid by investors to control the company.
The Nasdaq fell 5 to 2499, the S&P rose 4 to 1416, and the Dow added 27 to 12,827. Volume rose to 4.19 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.62 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by an 18-14 margin on the NYSE, and decliners led 16-14 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 51% on the NYSE, and 39% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 39-425 on the NYSE, and 60-375 on the Nasdaq.