By Benjamin Pimentel
The tech sector edged higher Thursday, led by Texas Instruments
and Palm Inc., pushing the Nasdaq Composite Index back above the
2,000 mark.
After a shaky start, the Nasdaq (RIXF) gained 0.4% to 2,007,
with less than an hour left in the session.
The tech-heavy index was aided by gains from Palm Inc. (PALM)
which were up more than 5%.
Texas Instruments (TXN) also traded up more than 2% after the
chip giant was upgraded by Baird to neutral from underperform.
"Texas Instruments should continue to benefit from strong
sell-in analog trends in the third quarter, and inventory
replenishment dynamics at distributors in the second-half as lead
times continue to expand," analyst Tristan Gerra said in a
note.
TI's gains helped boost the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index
(SOX) which advanced 1.7%, as shares of Advanced Micro Devices
(AMD), Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) and Intel Corp. (INTC) also rose.
Apple (AAPL) was up 1.6%, while Dell Inc. (DELL) rose 2.75%.
Shares of Tellabs Inc. (TLAB) were up more than 9% after the
communications equipment company was upgraded to outperform from
market perform by Morgan Keegan.
Meanwhile, Amazon.com (AMZN) struggled in negative territory,
its shares down more than 1%.
Also in the red were shares of SanDisk Corp. (SNDK) and eBay
Inc. (EBAY).