By Rex Crum
Most leading technology stocks turned their back on
early-session losses Monday as the sector awaited the latest
quarterly results from Apple Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) added more than 17
points to 2,174, while the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH)
and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) each rose more than
1%.
Gains came from Dell Inc. (DELL), Oracle Corp. (ORCL), Google
Inc. (GOOG), IBM Corp. (IBM), Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) and
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ).
Much of the spotlight later in the day is expected to be on
Apple Inc. (AAPL) as the company is scheduled to deliver its
fourth-quarter results after the market closes. Apple's shares rose
75 cents to $188.78.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect Apple to earn $1.42
a share on $9.2 billion in sales for the quarter. Sales of the
iPhone are expected to gain much of investors' attention.
TI (TXN) shares rose 55 cents, or 2.4%, to $23.30 ahead of the
communication-chip maker's third-quarter results, due after the
market closes. Wall Street analysts estimate that TI will report a
17% drop in its quarterly sales compared with the same period a
year ago.