MARKET CLOSE: Techs fall on profit taking

Technology investors returned from a three-day weekend in the mood to sell Monday as the Nasdaq composite fell 52 points to 1,909.45, while the Dow Jones industrial average gained 32 points to finish at 10,158.56.

Monday's losses chipped away at last week's gains when the Nasdaq moved up 14 percent in four trading days.

"People are starting to say a low is in place and that the market is starting to turn around," Holly Liss, chief technical strategist at Fuji Futures, told Reuters. "However, I think until we get a little bit more evidence of that, they are going to be quick to take their profits."

Semiconductors stocks were hit hard Monday after Morgan Stanley analyst Mark Edelstone cut ratings on a slew of companies, including Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), down $1.87 to $26.25, Xilinx (Nasdaq: XLNX), down 90 cents to $40.24, and Broadcom (Nasdaq: BRCM), off $4.27 to $31.11.

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) shed $1.35 to $23.50, and IBM (NYSE: IBM) gained 55 cents to $96.75.

Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) closed off 76 cents to $17.22 before warnings of weaker-than-expected sales and earnings in its third quarter. Nortel Networks (NYSE: NT) dropped $1.35 to $15.25, and Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) trimmed 3 cents to $7.40.

Online travel agency Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE) moved up 93 cents to $18.60 after announcing it will report its first operating profit in the third quarter, though losses including charges will be steep. The company's outlook was accompanied by some bullish reports on the online travel sector.

Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) added 66 cents to $17.62. America Online Time Warner (NYSE: AOL), which reports earnings Wednesday, rose $1.09 to $43.31, while Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) and eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) slid 64 cents and 75 cents a share, respectively. CMGI (Nasdaq: CMGI) lost 24 cents to $2.51.

DoubleClick (Nasdaq: DCLK) fell $1.58 to $10.43 after analysts came down hard on the stock. Though the company met estimates last week, its new projections were much worse than had been expected.

Among widely traded PC stocks, Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) shed 81 cents to $27.11, Compaq (NYSE: CPQ) dipped 62 cents to $17.98, Gateway (NYSE: GTW) fell 30 cents to $15.65 and Apple Computer (Nasdaq: AAPL) closed off 98 cents to $21.44.

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) finished off $1.39 to $60.79. Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) inched up 14 cents to $15.96, and Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) ended off 75 cents to $16.34.

ZDII staff and Reuters contributed to this roundup.