By Benjamin Pimentel, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Corning Inc. jumped
Tuesday, rallying 8% after the LCD-glass maker raised its
fourth-quarter sales forecast, but slumping Hewlett-Packard Co.
stock weighed down the tech sector.
Corning (GLW) said sales of LCD glass, which includes its
popular Gorilla Glass product used in smartphones and tablets, have
been running stronger than previously expected.
"We now expect glass market volume to be up in the low single
digits this quarter, versus our previous expectation of down
low-to-mid single digits," the company said in the statement.
Corning cited North American sales of LCD TVs as one of the
drivers behind the upwardly revised forecast. The company expects
Gorilla Glass to achieve more $1 billion in sales this year.
Topeka Capital analyst Brian White upgraded his rating on the
Corning, N.Y.-based company to buy from hold, citing prospects for
"strong seasonal trends" in the stock for 2013.
Separately, an upgrade from Cantor Fitzgerald lifted Yelp Inc.
(YELP), shares of which traded up 3%.
Cantor's Youssef Squali upped the online business review site's
rating to buy from hold, on what the analyst called Yelp's
"compelling" local search opportunity.
But the tech sector traded mostly lower, led by Hewlett-Packard
(HPQ). Shares of H-P slipped nearly 2% to qualify as the worst
performer among Dow Jones Industrial Average components; the Dow
industrials (DJI) gave up 25 points in choppy trading Tuesday.
The controversy over H-P's acquisition of Autonomy Corp. PLC in
2011 took another twist Tuesday when Mike Lynch, the software
company's former chief executive, put out an open letter to the H-P
board, saying he rejects "all allegations of impropriety."
Also in the red were shares of such well-known sector names as
Apple Inc. (AAPL), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Salesforce.com.(CRM),
among others.
On the upside, shares of Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) added nearly 2%,
while Intel Corp. (INTC) rose 1%.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) was up 4 points to stand at
2,981. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was also up a
fraction.
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