MARKET CLOSE: Tech stocks back in favor

Jan. 2, 2002 4:43 p.m. PT

2 min read

Technology stocks continued their recent hot streak Wednesday as the Nasdaq composite motored up 153 points to 4,864.58. The Dow Jones industrial average closed off 41 points to 10,866.70.

"The Dow is down because of the extent of its move yesterday," said Barry Hyman, market strategist at Ehrenkrantz, King Nussbaum Inc. "There is a little resistance at the 11,000-level. You are seeing a lot of the tech stocks that were annihilated coming back. They are seen as not being as sensitive to interest rates as 'old economy' companies."

Semiconductor stocks were especially popular Wednesday as Rambus Inc. (RMBS) shot up 83 11/16, or 31 percent, to 350 1/4 after being battered down over troubles in Taiwan.

Intel Corp. (INTC) moved up 5 5/8 to 144 1/16 and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) gained 1 3/4 to 56 9/16.

Micron Technology Inc. (NYSE: MU) rallied up 20 1/4 to 139 1/2 as Wall Street shrugged off an earnings shortfall from the world's No. 2 computer memory chip maker.

Among widely held PC stocks, Dell Computer Corp. (DELL) inched up 3/16 to 58 3/16; Compaq Computer Corp. (CPQ) rose 1 3/8 to 31 7/8; Gateway Inc. (GTW) trimmed 3/4 to 62 11/16 and Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) closed up 9 1/4 to 144 3/16.

InSilicon (Nasdaq: INSN), the spin-off of Pheonix Technology's semiconductor intellectual property unit, moved up 9 9/16, or 80 percent, to 21 9/16 in its initial public offering.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) gained 1/2 to 103 1/4. Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW) closed off 2 1/2 to 96 3/4 and Oracle Corp. (ORCL) ended up 3 5/16 to 84.

PSINet (Nasdaq: PSIX) shed 7 15/16 to 41 9/16 after announcing it will buy business software and service company Metamor Worldwide (Nasdaq: MMWW) along with its electronic commerce software affiliate Xpedior (Nasdaq: XPDR) for $1.9 billion. Metamor shares rose 17 5/16 to 33 5/16 and Xpedior shot up 7 11/16 to 21 15/16.

Santa Cruz Operation (Nasdaq: SCOC) fell 2 5/8 to 10 7/16 after it said Tuesday that second-quarter and year-end sales will be significantly lower than expected.