Conflicting World Events Give No Single Direction For Indexes

The major indexes closed mixed Wednesday, as news of strong activity during April in the service sector competed with worries that the Federal Reserve might hike short-term interest rates.

Tech issues were generally positive. PalmOne rose 12%, or $1.94, to $18.12; Sprint rose 3%, or 56 cents, to $17.95; Motorola rose 2.7%, or 50 cents, to $19.15; Apple Computer rose 2%, or 51 cents, to $26.65; Dell rose 1%, or 40 cents, to $35.71; and Hewlett-Packard rose 0.6%, or 12 cents, to $20. The Nasdaq-100 tracking stock was up 0.8%, or 28 cents, to $35.53.

At the closing bell, the Nasdaq index had risen 0.4%, or 6.78 points, to 1,957.26, and the InformationWeek 100 had risen 0.5%, or 1.62 points, to 313.84. The Dow fell 0.06%, or 6.25 points, to 10,310.95, and the S&P 500 rose 0.18%, or 1.98 points, to 1,121.53.

See the full listing of all the companies in the InformationWeek 100 and the top 5 percentage winners and losers for the last closing at informationweek.com/stocks.