TECH STOCKS: Tech Stocks Head North In Afternoon Action

By Rex Crum

Technology stocks began to show some signs of life in afternoon trading Tuesday, as the Nasdaq Composite Index reached its highest point in 10 months and the market awaited quarterly results from video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc.

After falling 11 points early the Nasdaq (RIXF) came back and was up more than 3 points at 2,011. The last time the tech-heavy market gauge rose so high was Oct. 3, 2008.

The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) were also in positive territory.

Electronic Arts (ERTS) shares rose 48 cents, or 2.3%, to $22.05 ahead of the company's first-quarter earnings report. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters estimate EA will lose 14 cents a share on almost $724 million in sales for the quarter.

However, those results would be an improvement over the same period a year ago, when EA lost 42 cents a share on revenue of $609 million. EA's results are expected to be helped by strong sales of games associated with Nintendo's Wii video game console.

Other tech companies scheduled to report results after the market close are BMC Software Inc. (BMC), Glu Mobile Inc. (GLUU) and Molex Inc. (MOLX).

Semiconductor stocks, which were mostly in the red early, also staged a bit of a comeback. Gains came from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) and Nvidia Corp. (NVDA).

Gains also came from Dell Inc. (DELL), NetApp Inc. (NTAP), Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) and Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE).