Yahoo Gains as Rally Stalls

Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) shares rose Monday on reports that it could strike a search and advertising deal with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), but the rest of the tech sector was flat ahead of the start of first-quarter earnings reports.

Yahoo was up 7% on reports of talks with Microsoft, but the rest of the market struggled a day before Intel’s (NASDAQ: INTC) earnings report.

Analysts expect Intel to report earnings of just 2 cents a share, down from 25 cents a share in the year-ago quarter, on a 28% plunge in sales to $6.98 billion, according to Thomson Reuters. But analysts have turned more positive on the chip sector lately and expect companies to begin to benefit from inventory restocking.

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) will report their results on Thursday, while next week will see earnings reports from IBM (NYSE: IBM), AMD (NYSE: AMD), Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), VMware (NYSE: VMW), EMC (NYSE: EMC), Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT).

eBay lost 2.6% today on a Collins Stewart downgrade. Meanwhile, Skype’s founders may be interested in buying back Skype from eBay.

Seagate (NASDAQ: STX) fell nearly 5% on plans to raise money and suspend its dividend.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) edged higher on reports that CEO Steve Jobs remains active in running the company.

Satyam (NYSE: SAY) fell 15% after finding a controlling partner.

The Nasdaq added 1 to 1653, the S&P 500 rose 2 to 858, and the Dow lost 25 to 8057. Volume declined to 7.52 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.87 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by a 22-14 margin on the NYSE, and by just a few shares on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 68% on the NYSE, and 47% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 8-73 on the NYSE, and 23-20 on the Nasdaq.