The Night Watch: Applied Materials Hugs Flatline After Earnings

Updated from 4:56 p.m. EST

Applied Materials

(AMAT) - Get Report

was bouncing around the flatline in extra-session Instinet trading Tuesday after the chip equipment maker

posted quarterly earnings that came in ahead of analysts' expectations.

The stock, the volume leader after the close, recently traded up 0.2% to $44.81. In the first part of the late session, the stock was losing ground.

KLA-Tencor

(KLAC) - Get Report

, another chip capital gear outfit, was lower by 1.2% to $56.70.

In the first 45 minutes of late trading, around 2.5 million shares changed hands among the top-20 volume leaders. Applied Materials accounted for about 20% of that volume.

Overture Services

(OVER)

was up 1.6% to $28.10 after the company topped the consensus estimate. Earlier in the day, Overture said it expanded an agreement with MSN. In addition, Goldman Sachs upgraded the company's stock. During regular trading, Overture gained 27%.

Network Appliance

(NTAP) - Get Report

was trading higher by 1.5% to $16.70 on its earnings news. The

company matched expectations for the third quarter and said that fourth-quarter earnings will be flat with the recently completed quarter.

Widely held technology issues were, as usual, active in late trading.

Intel

(INTC) - Get Report

was down 0.4% to $32.84, and the

Nasdaq 100 Unit Trust

(QQQ) - Get Report

was inching up 0.1% at $36.35.

Microsoft

(MSFT) - Get Report

was off 0.3% to $60.30, and

Broadcom

was losing 0.6% at $39.60.

Elsewhere,

Cisco

(CSCO) - Get Report

was off 0.5%,

Oracle

(ORCL) - Get Report

was down 0.1%, and

Sun

(SUNW) - Get Report

was losing 0.2%.