Good Jobs Data Will Stabilize Tech

This column was originally published on RealMoney on Dec. 8 at 9:27 a.m. ET. It's being republished as a bonus for TheStreet.com readers. For more information about subscribing to RealMoney, please click here.

The impact of this employment number, a robust one, should be best felt in technology -- and we need it. We had a real rocking of tech last night off the Xilinx(XLNX Quote) and National Semi(NSM Quote) numbers, coupled with the cautionary Corning(GLW Quote) update about big-screen televisions. You can't get a more widespread collection of data than from those three. They cover everything from big-screen TVs to electronic gadgets and cell phones to telco equipment.

If we had been given a weak employment number, unquestionably tech would lead us down today. Instead, I believe people will look for reasons to isolate these particular tech stories as an issue and focus on winning tech, notably Hewlett-Packard(HPQ Quote) ahead of what I think will be a robust analyst day.

The truth is, of course, that Xilinx has been incredibly inconsistent, that Corning may no longer be as good a barometer as it was because there are a lot of glassmakers out there and National Semi has become an also-ran of late -- as has Texas Instruments(TXN Quote), by the way (and I note this because of its upcoming midquarter update).

When you layer on Jefferies' downgrade of SAP(SAP Quote) today and the weakness in Oracle(ORCL Quote), the case can be made that anyone who buys tech can be too aggressive and that the only thing that worked Thursday was a momentum buyer who recommended Akamai(AKAM Quote) on television.

I believe the key to the action today in tech will be Research In Motion(RIMM Quote). It's launching big new products next week vs. Thursday's downgrade. If the latter is forgotten, you have to go to the tech well again, regardless of the last session's action.

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