MARKET CLOSE: Tech stocks snap out of slump

Technology stocks made modest gains Wednesday as the Nasdaq composite moved up 45 points to close at 3,894.67. The Dow Jones industrial average shed 50 points to finish at 11,183.29.

"We've had a continuation of this process that started in March of squeezing out the irrational exuberance in technology and anything related to the Internet," said Alan Skrainka, chief market strategist at Edward Jones in St. Louis.

Intel (INTC) shares fell $3.56 to $61.38 and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) dropped 2 to $28.50 after both chipmakers were downgraded. IBM (IBM) closed up $2.31 to $127.31.

Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq: RMBS) picked up $7.66 to $84.67 after announcing it had new licensing agreements with NEC Corp. (Nasdaq: NIPNY).

SCI Systems Inc. (NYSE: SCI) lost $10.38 to $45.56 after it said its fiscal first quarter results will miss expectations due to weakness in consumer electronics and personal computer demand. Jabil (NYSE: JBL) lost $2.72 to $61.88 and Solectron (NYSE: SLR) closed off 44 cents to $45.81.

Great Plains Software (Nasdaq: GPSI) added $2.94 to $27.63 after the company walloped analysts' expectations, with first quarter revenue jumping 68 percent from a year ago.

Internet software maker Inktomi Corp. (Nasdaq: INKT) fell $2.25 to $108.75 after it said Wednesday it will buy FastForward Networks for about $1.3 billion, acquiring its technology for live broadcasting over the Internet.

Yahoo! (YHOO) trimmed 63 cents to $106.38. Amazon.com (AMZN) lost 25 cents to $42.44 while America Online (AOL) and eBay (EBAY) added 19 cents and 31 cents a share, respectively. Lycos (LCOS) gained $2.50 to $69.13.

Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) dropped 1.38 to 105.63, Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) fell 1.32 to 42.13, and AOL (NYSE: AOL) shed 1.19 to 54.81.

Among widely held PC stocks, Dell (DELL) lost $1.19 to $36.25; Compaq (CPQ) fell $1.56 to $29.94; Gateway (GTW) tumbled $4.36 to $58.65 and Apple Computer (AAPL) inched up 25 cents to $58.

Microsoft (MSFT) inched up 19 cents to $68.31. Oracle (ORCL) moved up $2.44 to $81.81 and Sun Microsystems (SUNW) closed up $3.88 to $118.19.