Wall St: Thursday mid-session

By THIS IS MONEY
Updated:

 

FORECAST-TOPPING results from software maker Adobe Systems triggered a bounce by technology stocks, pushing New York into the black in choppy trade.

'You've got a little bit of a bounceback in the groups that got clobbered yesterday, and that's semiconductors, software and banks, and that's what's really giving us any lift,' said Tim Heekin, director of trading at Thomas Weisel Partners.

Sentiment was subdued on the second anniversary of 9.11. Major markets paused for moments of silence four times during the morning to mark the moments when airplanes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Centre and the moments when the towers collapsed.

A downgrade for International Business Machines also put a cap on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The blue-chip index was ahead 47.65 points to 9468.11 by mid-session, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 8.4 points at 1832.21.

Adobe surged $3.59, or 10%, to $39.98 after posting a quarterly profit that beat Wall Street forecasts and a 12% rise in sales stemming from strong demand for its electronic document and digital publishing software.

TriQuint Semiconductor also rose, gaining 82 cents, or 14%, to $6.50 after raising its financial outlook for the third and fourth quarters, citing strong demand from the mobile phone market.

But IBM fell 38 cents to $87.46. Smith Barney cut its rating and told clients to take profits, saying sentiment appeared to be ahead of reality. A Smith Barney downgrade also hit PMC-Sierra, offl 52 cents to $13.26, and Applied Micro Circuits, down 31 cents to $5.57.

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