TECH STOCKS: Tech Sector Gives Up Gains As Nvidia, Palm Sink

By Benjamin Pimentel

Technology stocks held on to modest gains Monday afternoon, as shares of Palm Inc. and Nvidia Corp. tumbled, pushing back against the sector's earlier advances.

Palm (PALM) and Nvidia (NVDA) were down more than 2% in afternoon trading, as the Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) held on to a 0.1% gain. The tech-heavy benchmark was at 2,022 at last check.

The sector got a boost from Dell Inc. (DELL), shares of which were up 3.2% after an analyst at Broadpoint AmTech raised his rating on the stock to buy. The same analyst had upgraded Dell from a sell rating in March.

"Two factors that kept us at neutral despite our recent positive bias were the enterprise IT-demand environment and downward mix shift in PCs," analyst Dinesh Moorjani wrote to clients. "We are now more optimistic on the PC demand outlook and believe the downward mix shift has played out for the most part."

Dell reports earnings results for the second fiscal quarter Thursday.

AMD (AMD) was up 9% after Citigroup raised its rating for the chip maker to buy from hold, citing a "favorable risk/reward profile."

The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) was down 0.4%, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) lost 0.3%.

Other gainers included Yahoo Inc. (YHOO), up 1.4%; Oracle Corp. (ORCL), up 1.2%; and Google Inc. (GOOG), up 0.9%.