Wireless Weakness Spreads

Nokia and Texas Instruments on Tuesday confirmed Motorola’s warning of weakness in the wireless sector.

Nokia warned before the bell that sales will come in at or below the low end of expectations, and the Finnish cell phone giant reiterated Motorola’s comments that handset pricing pressure has returned.

After the bell, TI warned of slowing wireless chip sales because of weak demand in Asia.

“We believe the weakness in demand is largely due to the ongoing economic impact associated with SARS, and should abate as the health concerns are resolved,” TI CEO Tom Engibous said in a statement.

With earnings warning season just getting underway, more big tech companies are likely to warn of SARS’ effect on business in the last few weeks of the quarter.

Positive comments from Micron Technology and GM buoyed the broader market on Tuesday, as stocks rebounded from Monday’s sell-off on an accounting scandal at government-backed mortgage giant Freddie Mac .

The Nasdaq rose 23 to 1627, the S&P 500 climbed 8 to 984, and the Dow rose 74 to 9054. Volume declined to 1.28 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.8 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by 23-9 on the NYSE, and by 20-11 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 72% on the NYSE, and 73% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 329-3 on the NYSE, and 156-3 on the Nasdaq.

Microsoft rose 4% on a security acquisition. Symantec fell 1.5% on concern about competition from Microsoft’s move into security software.

Infineon surged 10% on new magnetic memory technology developed with IBM .

Oracle rose 1.3% after moving up its earnings date up to Thursday. Siebel rose 10% on speculation that it could become an acquisition target in the wake of the Oracle-PeopleSoft-JD Edwards takeover battle.

Netflix reaffirmed guidance, but fell 1.3% on concern about competition from Wal-Mart .

Mercury Interactive rose 4.2% on an acquisition.

Broadcom rose 2.3% on a set-top deal.

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