MARKET CLOSE: Tech stocks finally relent

Despite the drama of Palm's much-anticipated initial public offering, technology stocks struggled for a change Thursday. The Nasdaq composite fell 30 points to 4,754.43 while the Dow added 27 points to finish at 10,164.92.

The Nasdaq reached a new intraday record of 4,800 before midday.

3Com (Nasdaq: COMS) shares fell 22 5/16 to 81 13/16 after Palm Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM) opened at $145 a share in its debut. After peaking at 165, Palm shares closed up 57 1/16 to 95 1/16.

"The Palm IPO may mark a near-term top for Nasdaq because there was so much anticipation building up,'' said Scott Bleier, chief investment strategist at Prime Charter Ltd. "People buy on the expectation and sell on the event, and there's an awful lot of room for profit-taking in some sectors after the last two weeks of strong performance."

The other notable IPO, Switchboard (Nasdaq: SWBD), closed up 11 13/16 to 26 13/16 after pricing at $15 a share.

Among widely held PC stocks, Dell Computer Corp. (DELL) added 1 59/64 to 44 15/16; Compaq Computer Corp. (CPQ) rose 1/2 to 26 1/2; Gateway Inc. (GTW) lost 2 3/16 to 67 5/8 and Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) tumbled 8 5/16 to 122 after Wednesday's huge run-up.

Intel Corp. (INTC) closed off 1/8 to 115 3/4 and IBM Corp. (IBM) gained 3 5/16 to 103 9/16. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) shed 1 1/4 to 30 1/4.

Gensym (Nasdaq: GNSM) rallied up 11 1/2 to 17 1/2 after it announced a deal to provide Nokia (NYSE: NOK), up 8 1/4 to 209 3/4, with its software for operations management.

Radiant Systems (Nasdaq: RADS) stormed up 28 1/8 to 83 3/8 after it announced it will work with Microsoft to create Web marketplaces for retailers.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) finished up 2 9/16 to 93 3/8. Oracle Corp. (ORCL) dropped 3 to 68 1/2 and Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW) ended off 1 7/8 to 96 1/16.

Among widely held Internet stocks, Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) slid 3 9/16 to 154 15/16; America Online Inc. (AOL) shed 15/16 to 56 1/16; Excite@Home Corp. (ATHM) lost 2 1/8 to 31 11/16; Lycos Inc. (LCOS) dropped 4 7/8 to 52 3/8 and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) closed off 3 5/16 to 62 9/16.