By Rex Crum
Technology stocks turned in a day of small gains Tuesday,
helping to push the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index to its
highest close in 10 months as the market awaited quarterly results
from video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc.
The Nasdaq (RIXF) climbed 2.7 points to end the day at 2,011,
its best close since Oct. 3, 2008. The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35
Index (MSH) and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) also
closed with small gains.
Advancers included Gains also came from Dell Inc. (DELL), NetApp
Inc. (NTAP), Yahoo Inc. (YHOO), Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) and Adobe
Systems Inc. (ADBE).
Electronic Arts (ERTS) shares rose 34 cents, or 1.6%, to $21.89
ahead of the company's first-quarter earnings report. Analysts
surveyed by Thomson Reuters estimate EA will lose 14 cents a share
on almost $724 million in sales for the quarter.
However, those results would be an improvement over the same
period a year ago, when EA lost 42 cents a share on revenue of $609
million. EA's results are expected to be helped by strong sales of
games associated with Nintendo's Wii video game console.
Other tech companies scheduled to report results after the
market close are BMC Software Inc. (BMC), Glu Mobile Inc. (GLUU)
and Molex Inc. (MOLX).
Semiconductor stocks ended up putting in a mixed performance.
Gains came from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), Texas
Instruments Inc. (TXN) and Nvidia Corp. (NVDA). Decliners included
Intel Corp. (INTC) and Micron Technology Inc. (MU).