U.S. tech stocks slip; Dow flat; oil spikes AAP News 7:13:020 9/03/2005 (Updates to late afternoon) By Megan Davies NEW YORK, March 8 (Reuters) - U.S. technology stocks slipped on Tuesday after chip maker Texas Instruments Inc. provided a disappointing forecast, while blue chips were little changed as oil prices shot close to a record high. Texas Instruments fell 3.4 percent to $26.44 a day after it reduced its quarterly forecast, blaming slower orders for its chips used in big-screen televisions. That sent other chip stocks lower. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index fell 1.1 percent after gaining nearly 2 percent on Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 2.67 points, or just 0.02 percent, at 10,934.19. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 3.42 points, or 0.28 percent, at 1,221.89. The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index fell 9.56 points, or 0.46 percent, to 2,080.65. Meanwhile, high oil prices dampened equities in general as worries about crimped consumer spending and corporate profits were reignited. NYMEX crude for April delivery rose 71 cents to $54.60 -- within striking distance of the March 3 high of $55.20. But energy companies were higher as oil spiked, limiting losses on the blue-chip Dow. Exxon Mobil Corp., a Dow component, rose 0.3 percent to $63.21. "The leadership today is in energy and aerospace and the weakness today is the semis -- which were interestingly enough part of yesterday's strength," said Tim Heekin, director of trading at San Francisco investment bank Thomas Weisel Partners. "The bigger news walking in this morning was Texas Instruments." He also pointed to weakness in the pharmaceuticals and telecoms sectors. Pfizer Inc. was down 1 percent at $26.93. A study presented on Tuesday said heart-disease patients who took high doses of Pfizer's cholesterol-treatment Lipitor had fewer heart attacks and strokes, but higher risk of death from other causes. McDonald's Corp. was down 2.7 percent at $33.28 after it said same-store sales rose 4.6 percent in the United States, its largest market, but fell 3.4 percent in Europe, the company's No. 2 market. Consolidation hopes buoyed aerospace shares following Britain's BAE Systems $3.97 billion deal, announced Monday, to take over U.S. armored-car maker United Defense Industries, said Heekin. "Whenever you see a takeover in a sector you're going to see that whole sector hot for a period of time," he said. The Dow Jones U.S. Aerospace & Defense Index was up nearly 1 percent. Apple Computer weighed on the Nasdaq, down 4.5 percent to $40.83 after Sony Corp. launched a new lineup of cheaper Walkman portable music players in an attempt to recapture market share from Apple and its popular iPod device.
