Tech Winners and Losers: Microsoft

Updated from 4:58 p.m. EDT

A research report released Thursday estimates that cell-phone sales will fall 8.3% this year, but phone-makers' stocks turned a deaf ear to the prediction.

Research firm IDC said shipments for the fourth quarter of 2008 fell 11.8% year over year, according to The Associated Press. Overall, 2008 shipments reportedly grew 4.3%. "Worse-than-expected results and a steady flow of negative economic news are indicating that 2009 will be gloomier than predicted," said IDC researcher Ryan Reith, according to the AP. The outfit expects recovery to begin in the first half of 2010.

That report notwithstanding, shares of the major handset makers were up Thursday. Palm(PALM Quote) shares rose 6.8% to $7.86. Research In Motion(RIMM Quote) rose 2.8% to $41.46. iPhone maker Apple(AAPL Quote) rose 4% to $96.35. Nokia(NOK Quote) rose 8% to $11.04.

Meanwhile, shares of Microsoft(MSFT Quote) fell 0.6% to $17.01 after an analyst at Morgan Stanley lowered his revenue and earnings forecast for the company, citing a bleaker outlook for PC sales.

Internet company Google(GOOG Quote) was recently up 1.8% to $323.53 after announcing it was reaching one of its powerful tentacles into the phone space. Yahoo!(YHOO Quote) shares rose 1.6% to $13.60. eBay(EBAY Quote) rose, as well, to the befuddlement of TheStreet.com's Michael Goodman.

Among telco services, Comcast(CMSCA Quote) was up 4.5% to $12.92. AT&T(T Quote) was up 4.3% to $24.35. Sprint(S Quote) rose 8.5% to $3.83. Deutsche Telekom(DT Quote) rose 3.1% to $12.19. And Verizon(VZ Quote) was up 2.6% to $28.14.

In the semiconductor space, National Semiconductor(NSM Quote) shares were down after a Standard & Poor's analyst downgraded the firm's corporate credit and senior unsecured ratings to junk status. The stock was recently going for $11.02, reflecting a 3.2% drop. Texas Instruments (TXN Quote) rose 1.5% to $15.94. SanDisk rose 3.9% to $9.95. Intel(INTC Quote) rose 4% to $14.52 after an analyst with American Technology Research upgraded the stock to Buy from Neutral. Advanced Micro Devices(AMD Quote) rose 3.9% to $2.40

Computer maker Dell(DELL Quote) rose 5.1% to $9.44. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ Quote) rose 2.6% to $29.34. IBM(IBM Quote) climbed 2% to $90.40.