Thursday's Tech Winners & Losers

Tech stocks traded higher Thursday with semiconductor stocks leading the way as many big names in the sector bagged upgrades from an analyst at Bank of America.

Shares of Yahoo!(YHOO) gathered steam following a report in the Wall Street Journal that it may be close to merging its online operations with Time Warner's(TWX) AOL in a bid to rebuff Microsoft's(MSFT) unsolicited offer for the company.

Microsoft, which has made a $31-a-share offer for Yahoo!, is not sitting idle. It is reportedly talking to News Corp.(NWS) to partner on its Yahoo! bid.

Yahoo!'s stock rose 85 cents, or 3.1%, to $28.62. Microsoft was up 34 cents, or $1.2%, to $29.23.

LSI(LSI) added 37 cents, or 6.7%, to $5.70 after Sumit Dhanda, an analyst at Bank of America upgraded the stock to neutral from sell.

Inventory buildup and lack of top line growth amid loss of market share has now been baked into the analyst's operating margins forecast for LSI and is reflected better in the stock's price at its current valuation, he said.

National Semiconductor(NSM) also gained $1.33, or 6.8%, to $20.77 following an upgrade to neutral from sell by Dhanda, the BofA analyst.

Intel(INTC) added 91 cents, or 4.3%, to $22.33 after it was upgraded to buy from neutral by Dhanda.

Analog Devices(ADI) rose $1.62, or 5.4%, to $31.63 after an upgrade to buy from neutral by Dhanda.

Shares of Texas Instruments(TXN) stayed strong despite news that two of Europe's largest chip companies, ST Micro(STM) and NXP will combine their wireless chip business that could put the new combined entity in competition with TI. TI shares were up 89 cents, or 3%, to $30.41

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