PC Makers Struggling After Wit Soundview Downgrade

Wit Soundview

downgraded several PC makers this morning, citing weak October sales and the dangers of price competition amid sluggish demand.

The firm cut its ratings on

Apple

(AAPL) - Get Report

,

Dell

(DELL) - Get Report

and

Intel

(INTC) - Get Report

to buy from strong buy.

Shares of Apple were recently unchanged at $18.44, while Dell shares were tumbling 7%, or $1.75, to $23.19 in

Nasdaq

trading. Shares of Intel, which today introduced its new Pentium 4 chip, were off 1%, or 44 cents, to $41.13 on the

Nasdaq

.

Gateway

(GTW)

, whose shares were recently falling 10%, or $3.98, to $35.75, had its rating cut to hold from buy.

Other members of the sector were also generally lower this morning. Shares of

Hewlett-Packard

(HWP)

were recently down 0.7%, or 25 cents, to $35.38, on the Big Board, while shares of

Sun Microsystems

(SUNW) - Get Report

were also in the red at $83.69, down $5.69, or 6.4% in

Nasdaq

trading. But shares of

IBM

(IBM) - Get Report

recently gained 0.3%, or 31 cents, to $102.25 in

New York Stock Exchange

trading. Shares of

Compaq

(CPQ)

were down 77 cents, or 3.1%, to $24.23.