By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Tech stocks began the week with
mild yet broad gains Monday, with Dell Inc. and Facebook Inc. among
the standout advancers.
Dell (DELL) shares rose 2.4% to $13.35 after investment advisory
firm ISS gave its support to a plan led by Dell Chief Executive
Michael Dell to take the PC company private in a deal worth $24.4
billion.
ISS cited the "25.5% premium to Dell's unaffected share price"
as one of the reasons it is now behind the effort by Michael Dell
and private equity group Silver Lake to take Dell private. (Read
more about ISS and the efforts to take Dell private:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/iss-recommends-dell-buyout-2013-07-08-94852854.)
Facebook (FB) was up by more than 2%, at $24.90. The
social-networking leader said Monday that it will expand its Graph
Search service. Facebook said Graph Search, which has been in beta
trial, will be available to all users of U.S. English in the coming
weeks.
Online travel company Priceline.com Inc.(PCLN) saw its shares
climb 2.7%, to $877.67. Analysts at Morgan Stanley raised their
rating on Priceline to overweight from equal weight.
Gains also came form Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Netflix Inc.
(NFLX), Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) and IBM Corp. (IBM).
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) rose 10 points to 3,489, but
the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was down by 0.7%.
Intel Corp. (INTC) was one of the top chip stocks in the red, as
its shares fell 3.5%, to $23.23. Analyst Patrick Wang, of Evercore
Partners, cut his rating on Intel to underweight, or sell, from
equal weight, and took down his price target on the stock to $20 a
share from $22. In a research note, Wang cited weak trends in PC
sales and the possibility of Intel's Atom processor cannibalizing
the business of its Core brand of chips.
Additionally, chip stocks were impacted by a negative research
note from Citigroup analyst Glen Yeung, who cut his estimates on
Intel and took Qualcomm Inc.(QCOM) off his Top Picks list due to
saturation in the market for high-end smartphones.
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