Techs Shake Off Housing Slump

Weak pending home and auto sales reports weighed on blue chip stocks Tuesday, but technology stocks continued to rise on hopes that better days lie ahead.

The Dow took a breather a day after hitting a new high and the S&P 500 remained stuck just below its all-time high, but the Nasdaq moved to a fresh post-2002 high on strength in Baidu.com, which soared 12.5% to $320.58 after JP Morgan set a $400 price target on the stock on growing Internet usage in China.

Ciena was another winner, surging 9% to $42.66 after raising margin guidance at its analyst day.

Garmin continued to fall in the wake of Nokia’s purchase of Navteq, losing 6.7% to $100.10.

Palm shed 3.4% on its quarterly results, and Vignette fell 12.6% after warning that its sales will come in below Wall Street estimates.

Micron gained 4% ahead of its earnings report after the close, then gave back most of those gains after reporting a quarterly loss and 4.7% sales gain that were basically in line with Wall Street estimates. Micron said memory prices fell 15% in the quarter ended Aug. 30.

The Nasdaq rose 6 to 2747, the S&P slipped a fraction to 1546, and the Dow lost 40 to 14,047. Volume declined to 3.07 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.78 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by an 18-13 margin on the NYSE, and 17-12 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 56% on the NYSE, and 63% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 179-59 on the NYSE, and 194-61 on the Nasdaq.