Stocks Fall Across Board as Tech Issues Such as Microsoft and Intel Join Retreat
NEW YORK -- Stocks ended more than a week of divergence by falling in unison.</br></br>High-tech stocks, one of the few sectors to hold up in recent trading, lost ground, as investors took profits in high-priced issues. That halted a streak of seven straight gains by the Nasdaq Composite Index.</br></br>Blue-chip issues such as Microsoft lost 5 15/16 to 104, while Intel, coming off a 52-week high Tuesday, declined 4 3/16 to 104 5/8 (both on the Nasdaq Stock Market), and Motorola declined 6 13/16 to 153 9/16.</br></br>Meanwhile, several of the momentum-driven high-tech issues that had persisted in the face of a broad decline in recent sessions got caught in the sell-off. Yahoo! fell 10 13/16 to 362 5/16, while Commerce One eased 9 3/4 to 155 3/8, and Conexant Systems, also coming off a 52-week high, fell 7 to 104 15/16, all on Nasdaq.</br></br>Some technology issues managed to gain. Juniper Networks rose 16 5/16 to 185 15/16, and Vitesse Semiconductor climbed 5 13/16 to 55 13/16, both on Nasdaq. Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq), after an upbeat research note from Bear Stearns, gained 4 9/16 to 91 9/16. Nortel Networks advanced 1 3/4 to 122. Rival Lucent Technologies fell 1 1/8 to 53.