By Rex Crum
Many leading technology stocks managed to put together small
gains by the time the market closed Wednesday, with Dell Inc.
gaining some attention following reports that it will soon enter
the mobile phone market.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Dell (DELL) will join with
AT&T Inc. (T) to offer a new mobile phone early next year that
runs on Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android operating system. It would be
Dell's first foray into the mobile-phone market.
Dell shares fell 15 cents to close at $15.36.
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) was also in the spotlight after it cut
the price of its Kindle e-book reader as part of an effort to
increase sales ahead of the holiday shopping season.
Amazon (AMZN)shares rose $3.06, or more than 3%, to $93.97 after
the online retailer said it was lowering the price of the Kindle to
$259 from $299 in the U.S. Amazon also said it would soon begin
selling a new version of the Kindle in more than 100 other
countries for $279.
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) rose 26 cents a share to $23.61 after
William Blair analyst Jason Ader raised his rating on the
networking-equipment maker to outperform from market perform. In a
research note, Ader said recent product-channel checks suggest an
increase in orders for Cisco in recent weeks.
Other gains came from IBM Corp. (IBM), VMware Inc. (VMW), Oracle
Corp. (ORCL) and Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM).
Apple Inc. (AAPL) shares rose 24 cents to $190.2. Late Tuesday,
AT&T Inc. (T) said it would allow Voice over Internet Protocol
(VoIP) applications to operate on the 3G network that Apple's
iPhone runs on.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) showed some life in
late market action and managed to rise 6.8 points to 2,110, while
the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) edged into positive
territory. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) slipped into
the red.
Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) gave up 25 cents a share to close at
$33.26 after the software maker reaffirmed its fourth-quarter
earnings outlook. Adobe expects to earn 23 cents to 29 cents a
share on sales between $690 million and $740 million.
Small declines also came from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT),
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) and Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN)