Technology stocks rose Monday as the presidential election endgame drew near.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index picked up 97.67 to 3,015.10. The S&P 500 gained 10.31 to 1,380.20. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 12.89 to 10,725.80.
Inter@ctive Week's @100 Index advanced 77.24 to 3,134.86.
Investors were betting the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on what should count as a legitimate vote in Florida's disputed election would put an end to five weeks of wrangling over the White House, analysts said.
"I think the tone is overall positive," said Paul Cherney, a market analyst at S&P MarketScope. "The market sense is that the final resolution to the presidential election is close at hand."
Negative analyst reports hurt Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW), which dropped 4.9375 to 34 as the most active issue on U.S. markets. A Goldman Sachs research note suggested Sun would not top consensus estimates for the next couple of quarters. Banc of America said checks in the market for Sun's products "indicate that demand has slowed for Sun since the close of last quarter and most noticeably in the last three or four weeks."
Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) retreated 1.0625 to 33.875, on the latest round of cautious comments from analysts worried about advertising revenue.
Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) rose 3.4375 to 37.4375 as it added to its gains following last week's warning of lower-than-expected fourth quarter results. Other chip-related stocks recovering ground were Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT), up 6.75 to 50.9375, and Micron Technology (NYSE: MU), up 2.8125 to 37.5.
Motorola (NYSE: MOT) moved up 2.375 to 21.625.
Among other notable gainers, DSL service provider Covad Communications (Nasdaq: COVD) advanced 1.46875 to 3.0625 on volume of more than 14.7 million shares, largely moving in a late afternoon surge. Telecom vendor Global Crossing (NYSE: GX) picked up 2.9375 to 18.625.
Fibre channel adapter maker JNI (Nasdaq: JNIC) dropped 28.25 to 34.75. The company preannounced fourth quarter results.
Adtran (Nasdaq: ADTN) fell 4.203125 to 23.875. The maker of high-speed digital transmission products for the telecommunications industry said fourth quarter sales and earnings will fall dramatically short of analysts' estimates.
Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) slid 3.75 to 99.5. An international panel ruled the CDMA technology vendor must share its royalties in South Korea.
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