Mammoth Blog

Tech stocks reversed course Wednesday morning, slipping into the red as shares of Apple Inc. and eBay Inc. chalked up losses and chip makers turned in a mixed performance.

The sector earlier had posted modest gains as semiconductor shares rose after technology researchers Gartner Inc. updated its 2009 forecast for the chip industry and now foresees a smaller-than-expected revenue decline.

But the mini-rally lost steam by late morning as the Nasdaq Composite Index ( RIXF) fell 0.2% to 2,021, while the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) eased 0.1%.

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) held on to a 0.2% gain.

As revised, Gartner sees the sector's revenue totaling $212 billion for 2009, down 17.1% on the year. Its prior projection had been for a 22.4% decline.

"The semiconductor market has performed better than expected, as was evident when second quarter semiconductor revenue increased 17% in sequential sales," Gartner Vice President Bryan Lewis said.

Shares of chip giant Intel Corp. (INTC) traded up about 0.6%, but other chip makers were in the red, including Texas Instruments (TXN) and SanDisk Corp. ( SNDK).

The tech sector was also weighed down by losses in shares of such bellwethers as blue chips Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Cisco Systems (CSCO) as well as Google Inc. (GOOG) source>>>