High-Tech Stocks Buck Selling Tide

Wall Street overcame significant weakness Tuesday in turning in a mostly positive performance as investors confronted warnings about corporate profits and coped with economic uncertainty.

Blue chips struggled against a selling tide because Dow Jones industrials-component Caterpillar got clobbered after releasing a gloomy preview of its third-quarter results.

But after being down by nearly 50 points, the 30-stock index closed with a comparatively minor loss of 13.37 at 4,767.04.

The broader market fared far better than the Dow, with new highs reached by Standard & Poor’s 500 and the New York Stock Exchange composite index.

Advances managed to nose past declines on the Big Board after running behind for most of the day.

Volume on the NYSE floor expanded to 371.12 million shares. That was up from 326.07 million shares as of 4 p.m. Eastern time on Monday.

Credit for the market’s resilience went to the technology sector, which showed signs of reasserting its leadership role in earnest.

Some of the stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Tuesday:

NYSE

Caterpillar down 6-1/2 to 58-7/8.

Investors dumped the stock in response to a gloomy preview of third-quarter results the company issued late Monday. Caterpillar said its quarterly earnings will be lower than last year’s and that it will cut production schedules at plants worldwide.

Texas Instruments, up 4-1/2 to 82-1/4.

The stock surged in response to an upbeat assessment from the company on the outlook in the computer memory chip business. Shares of Micron Technology, which also made bullish remarks about semiconductor demand and prices, also were active, rising 1-1/2 to 90. International Business Machines surged 2-5/8 to 96-5/8.

NASDAQ

Adobe Systems, up 3-1/4 to 54.

Wall Street overcame disappointment that Adobe’s third-quarter earnings were not as high as the more optimistic estimates. Adobe posted income of 44 cents a share, up from 29 cents a share a year earlier. A Josephthal Lyon & Ross analyst raised the investment rating on Adobe to “buy” from “hold” on the assumption that the company’s core business remains strong.

AMEX

Biovail, up 1 to 35-3/8.

The company acquired its technology partner, Galephar P.R., along with European and other rights to their co-developed Tiazac diltiazem product.