AMD, Intel slides lead chip fall

THE USUAL suspects slid on stock markets yesterday as investors braced themselves for X86 firms' quarterly results.

Intel (INTC) fell 16 cents to close at $17.72, while AMD fell further by 71 cents, to shut at $22.13.

Graphics firms also declined. Nvidia (NVDA) was down 47 cents to close at $17.76, while ATI (ATYT) fell seven cents to finish at $15.69.

Rambus (RMBS) was down 21 cents to $22.15, while Transmeta (TMTA) showed a graceful decline of six cents to close at $1.38. Broadcom (BRCM) bucked the trend. Its shares rose 45 cents to $27.89.

On the OEM front, one time darling, Dell, was down 68 cents to $21.70. Hewlett Packard (HPQ) also fell - 45 cents to finish at $31.22.

Google (GOOG) made bigger tummy rumbles than normal - it was down $8.42 to $408.83. Microsoft (MSFT) fell 38 cents to $22.26.

Big tin firm IBM fell $1.24 to $74.24, while Sun (SUNW) fell by thirteen cents to close at $3.87. µ