Better than expected results from Texas Instruments boosted tech stocks on Wednesday.
TI reported earnings of 28 cents a share on a 14% jump in revenues, beating Wall Street estimates. Earnings slipped 4% from the year-ago quarter on rising costs, but the results were good enough for analysts to grudgingly raise their ratings on the stock.
Shares of TXN surged more than 7% on the day, sending chip stocks to a 2.5% gain.
Investors will get another look at the health of the tech sector Thursday night, when Microsoft reports earnings. Analysts expect Microsoft to report earnings of 33 cents a share on sales of $10.55 billion, up 4% from a year ago.
The Nasdaq rose 26 to 2046, the S&P 500 added 5 to 1174, and the Dow climbed 37 to 10,498. Volume rose to 1.64 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.13 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 23-9 on the NYSE, and 21-9 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 69% on the NYSE, and 74% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 101-26 on the NYSE, and 70-44 on the Nasdaq.
After the close, VeriSign , Websense
, LSI
, Digital River
and RealNetworks
beat estimates. Sierra Wireless
missed estimates, and JDS Uniphase
warned again.
During the day, Cymer , Flextronics
, StorageTek
, Compuware
, InfoSpace
, PLX
and Hyperion
surged on better than expected results.
CA , Avaya
and Corning
fell on their results, while Red Envelope
and CSG
climbed after beating estimates.
SBC edged higher after announcing 7,000 layoffs.
Nokia rose 2% ahead of its earnings Thursday morning.