By Benjamin Pimentel, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Corning Inc. jumped
Tuesday, rallying 7% after the glass maker raised its
fourth-quarter sales forecast, but Hewlett-Packard Co.'s slumping
stock weighed down the tech sector.
Corning (GLW) said sales of LCD glass, which includes its
popular Gorilla Glass used in smartphones and tablets, have been
running stronger than previously expected. Corning closed up to
$12.13.
"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. It 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 6.6% to close up to $20.24.
Cantor's Youssef Squali upped the online-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 3% to close at $12.36 to qualify as
the worst performer among Dow components; the Dow industrials (DJI)
gave up 89 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
firm'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 Inc.
(CRM), among others.
On the upside, shares of Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) added nearly 1% to
$18.93, while Intel Corp. (INTC) rose a fraction to close at
$19.93.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) gave up 9 points, or 0.3%, to
end at 2,968. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was also
down a fraction.
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