Microsoft and Other Tech Stocks Post Gains After Fed's Rate Move
NEW YORK -- The Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates gave high-growth technology issues reason to slip out from under the cloud of valuation pressures but did take a little steam out of some cyclical issues.</br></br>Shares of several blue-chip names in the technology sector posted sharp gains by the close. Microsoft added 5 3/4 to 92 3/16 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, while Gateway gained 3 5/16 to 97, and EMC rose 2 to 62 1/2. Shares of Micron Technology, trying to cement its status as a new entrant in the inner circle of blue-chip names, shot up 4 15/16 to 68 15/16.</br></br>A few rifts developed in the sector, as International Business Machines fell 2 7/16 to 122, and the best Intel (Nasdaq) could do turned out to be a 3/16 gain to 83 1/8, though it set a 52-week high intraday. Overall, semiconductor stocks played a leadership role for the broader technology group.</br></br>"Investors think that with further rate hikes off the table, it makes high P/E {price-to-earnings ratio} stocks more attractive," said Thomas Galvin, chief investment strategist at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. "The news has been better for tech stocks than for industrials."</br></br>In fact, those industrials finished with only slight gains, despite some wilder swings in market averages throughout the day.