NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
Technology issues began the week on a sour note despite a series of upgrades for several chipmakers and a favorable mention in Barron's for tech bellwether IBM.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 29.10 to 1,941.64, according to preliminary reports. The Morgan Stanley 35 slipped 9.26 to 457.78, while the Amex technology index lost 7.78 to 702.09.
Among the most actively-traded stocks on Nasdaq were Microsoft Corp., Sun Microsystems, and Cisco Systems. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT: Research, Estimates) lost 10 cents to $26.00, Sun (SUNW: Research, Estimates) edged 7 cents lower to $4.04, and Cisco Systems (CSCO: Research, Estimates) gave up 15 cents to $22.19.
Chipmakers were in focus after several brokerage upgrades on the sector, although their stocks failed to move much on the news.
Intel (INTC: Research, Estimates), the world's largest chipmaker, slipped 48 cents to $33.39 after J.P. Morgan upgraded the stock to "overweight" from "neutral" and raised its sales and earnings estimates for the fourth quarter and the full year.
Separately, the Supreme Court said it will hear an appeal by Intel on whether the chipmaker must produce documents from an old antitrust case for use by the European Commission as it investigates AMD's (AMD: Research, Estimates) complaint that Intel has abused its dominant market power in Europe.
Merrill Lynch raised its price target on several chipmakers, including Linear Technology (LLTC: Research, Estimates), Microchip Technology (MCHP: Research, Estimates), Semitech (SMTC: Research, Estimates), Maximum Integrated Products (MXIM: Research, Estimates) and Xilinx (XLNX: Research, Estimates). Their stocks, however, all slipped 2 percent to 5 percent.
IBM (IBM: Research, Estimates) rose $1.69 to $89.95 following a Barron's article that said the computer hardware maker could benefit from increased tech spending next year.
Monday was a relatively light day for corporate announcements but a couple of earnings reports due later in the week from EchoStar Communications Corp. and Dell Inc. could boost the sector.
Analysts surveyed by Reuters Research expect satellite broadcaster EchoStar (DISH: Research, Estimates) to earn 16 cents per share for the quarter when it announces its figures before the bell on Tuesday and computer maker Dell (DELL: Research, Estimates), which reports after the bell on Thursday, to earn 26 cents per share.
The stock market will be open for the Veteran's Day holiday on Tuesday.
--from staff and wire reports
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