Geopolitical issues were a hot topic at the start of last week, but stocks
came back later on as investors participated in an oversold market. Investor
jitters took hold after the founder and spiritual leader of terrorist group
Hamas was assassinated by Israeli forces. Also, speculation over the validity
of the Taiwanese President's narrow win, after an earlier attempt on his life,
also sparked concern." What we are getting now is a lot of short-term
political uncertainty. That is dominating things because we don't have a lot
of fundamental earnings and economic news," said Edgar Peters, chief
investment strategist at PanAgora Asset Management, to The Wall Street
Journal. Chip stocks in particular were hard-hit by Taiwan's political
uncertainty, as United Microelectronics and Taiwan Semi Manufacturing tanked.
"Taiwan is a key point in the global chip food chain, and shares globally fell
because people feared protests in Taiwan might disrupt the flow of goods
between R&D houses in Silicon Valley and their manufacturers in Taiwan," said
Rick Hsu, chip industry analyst at Nomura Securities in Taipei, to Dow Jones
Newswires. Midweek, tech stocks managed to regain their composure. An
abundance of news from the software sector led those issues higher. Microsoft
gained momentum, as its antitrust case with the E.U. concluded--for now. E.U.
regulators hit the software titan with a record fine of about $613 million and
imposed tough sanctions on the firm. Still, Microsoft is prepared to fight the
rulings. Elsewhere, Red Hat said its current-quarter revenue will top
estimates and Novell surged on positive news concerning the Linux industry.
Hewlett-Packard also garnered market support after it signed a 10-year, $784
million contract with the Department of Veterans Affairs. This week, the ever
popular Employment Report promises to keep investors on their toes until the
week's end.
High-Tech Monday Update is provided courtesy of Thomson Financial. This
information is believed to be true and accurate; we take no responsibility for
inaccurate information and reserve the right to update our reports. For more
information, please visit our web site at http://www.thomson.com/financial.
SOURCE Thomson Financial Corporate Group
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