By Benjamin Pimentel
Tech stocks were up slightly early Wednesday as semiconductor
shares rose after Gartner said it expects a smaller-than-expected
revenue decline for the chip industry in 2009.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) gained about 0.2% to 2,028,
while the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) was up 0.3% and
the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) added 0.7%.
Early Wednesday, Gartner revised its revenue projection for the
chip industry, saying it expects 2009 sales to total $212 billion,
down 17.1% from the previous year. Earlier, the industry group had
projected a 22.4% decline.
"The semiconductor market has performed better than expected, as
was evident when second quarter semiconductor revenue increased 17%
in sequential sales," Gartner Vice President Bryan Lewis said in a
statement.
Chip giants Intel Corp. (INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
traded up about 1%, while Texas Instruments (TXN) gained 0.5% and
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) rose 0.4%.
But the tech sector was weighed down by losses in shares of
major bellwethers, including eBay Inc. (EBAY), Hewlett-Packard
(HPQ), Google Inc. (GOOG) and Apple Inc. (AAPL).