The Night Watch: Novellus Lifts Chip-Equipment Sector

Semiconductor stocks were dominating the news and the trading after the close Monday, as investors hoped to take something positive from the tech sector into the next full session on Wall Street.

Novellus

(NVLS)

was the volume leader and one of the top percentage gainers in Instinet trading after the close, and the chip-equipment company's hopeful comments about semiconductor capital spending were lifting others in the sector higher.

Shares of Novellus were up 4.7% to $52.75 following the company's quarterly report, which came in stronger than expected.

Applied Materials

(AMAT) - Get Report

was gaining 3% to $53, while

KLA-Tencor

(KLAC) - Get Report

was adding 2.7% to $66.94.

Lam Research

(LRCX) - Get Report

was up 3.4% to $28.30.

Texas Instruments

(TXN) - Get Report

was climbing 2.1% to $32.80 after the company said it beat Wall Street's earnings estimates and indicated that chip shipments are picking up.

Intel

(INTC) - Get Report

was tacking on 0.5% at $28.26.

Volume was moderate. In the first hour of trading, around 3 million shares changed hands among the top-20 volume leaders on the Instinet platform.

Among other active stocks, the

Nasdaq 100 Unit Trust

(QQQ) - Get Report

was up 0.4%.

Oracle

(ORCL) - Get Report

was inching up 0.2%, and

Cisco

(CSCO) - Get Report

was gaining 0.5%.

GE

(GE) - Get Report

was higher by 0.4% to $31.97 after losing 5.1% in regular action.

Handspring

(HAND)

was tanking 19.4% to $3 after the maker of handheld computers posted a wider-than-expected third-quarter loss and said revenue could shrink in the next quarter.