The stock market held its gains of earlier today, although doubts about how financial companies are going to raise capital when their balance sheets are in complete disarray are prevalent on the street. The Dow was up 70 points and the Nasdaq up 18 points - thus providing some relative stability in the financial markets this week.
Some tech stocks in the news include Advanced Micro Devices and Expedia. Says Michael Yoshikami of YCMNET Advisors, appearing on CNBC this afternoon, both stocks have issues, but they also have merit.
""You can find opportunities when things drop out of sentiment that maybe are not really as troubled as the asset that caused the overall sector drop in the first place," he said. Exhibit A is Advanced Micro Devices, which has performed sluggishly of late. It's a buy in Yoshikami's eyes. He also likes likes Nvidia, which has a business partnership with a tech biggie that should keep the cash rolling in.
"Nvidia now is providing graphics services to Apple computers," he said. "Also, they have a tremendous amount of cash in the bank."
One stock that Yoshikami is not currently touting, but has potential, is Expedia. "The news is going to continue to be tough (for Expedia), and when it drops a couple of dollars, it's still a very dominant player," he said. "Travel's going to get very bad — but it's not going to fall off the earth, so I think it's a matter of buying something that's tough, but not a disaster."
I mentioned Advance Micro Devices, which along with sector titans like Texas Instruments and Broadcom enjoyed a bounced in trading earlier this week; this despite some bad news for the sector.
Richard M. Parower, head analyst for the Global Technology Fund at J. & W. Seligman in New York, told the Associated Press that the upturn is most likely coming from short sellers cashing in. He adds that chip stocks have taken the brunt of bad news from the consumer sector - people aren't buying as many computers and devices that require semiconductors. But signs are evident that the bottom has arrived and that should give investors a sliver of hope on the semiconductor landscape.
Strangely, bad economic news from chip companies has investors merely shrugging their shoulders. The sentiment is that the news could have even been worse.
Take National Semiconductor, which reported this week that fiscal third-quarter sales to decline by as much as 30 percent from the previous quarter. But its shares rose $1.36, or 13.2 percent on Tuesday, to close at $11.65. The stock has ranged from $9.02 to $24.75 over the past year.
Then there's Texas Instruments, which also announced a slide in sales Monday, slashing its fourth-quarter projected revenue and earnings below Wall Street estimates. Its shares rose 73 cents, or 4.9 percent, to $15.55.
And Broadcom reports a wave of customer cancelations and delays has pounded its sales. Yet its stock climbed $1.08, or 7 percent, to end Tuesday's trading at $16.54.
So bad news equals good news; a sign of the times on Wall Street.