Stocks Mixed As Walmart Dents Dow But Chips Hoist Nasdaq

Chip stocks rallied Tuesday on Qualcomm's (QCOM) sweetened bid for NXP Semiconductors (NXPI), which helped the Nasdaq composite climb while other indexes fell in afternoon trading.

X The Nasdaq climbed 0.6%. The S&P 500 fell 0.1% and was trying to hold above the 50-day moving average.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.5%, dipping slightly below the 50-day line. Dow component Walmart (WMT) tumbled more than 9% in heavy trading after the largest brick-and-mortar retailer disappointed with its latest quarterly results.

Walmart's point loss single-handedly accounted for the Dow's loss; without Walmart, the Dow would be up. Walmart gapped below its 50-day line, erasing all gains from a breakout past a 100.23 buy point, what had been a gain of nearly 10%. Shares are nearly 6% below the entry and the break of the 50-day line should cause investors who bought near 100.23 to consider cutting losses short.

Market volume was tracking lower compared with the same time Friday. Losing stocks led winners by 9-to-7 on the NYSE and by 8-to-5 on the Nasdaq.

Semiconductor stocks led after Qualcomm raised its buyout offer for NXP to $127.50 per share, or $44 billion. The bid also bolster's Qualcomm's defense against a hostile takeover bid from Broadcom (AVGO).

IBD's chip equipment, chipmaking and fabless chip industry groups were three of the four strongest in today's market, up 2.5% to 3.6%.

Applied Materials (AMAT) is one chip stock to watch. The chip-equipment maker is working on a double-bottom base with a 58.83 entry. The base is late-stage, however.

Financials also were higher, though not necessarily leading the market, as a couple of regional banks broke out.

Sterling Bancorp (SBT) broke out of a flat base, topping a 14.11 buy point in big volume. Seacoast Banking (SBCF) tried to break out past a 27.60 buy point. Volume was heavy but the stock was struggling to rise past the entry. Seacoast is being added to the small-cap S&P 600 before the open Wednesday.

HealthEquity (HQY) rose 3% to a new high. The stock cleared a 14-week pattern, but it had already broken out of a cup-with-handle buy point at 52.53. HealthEquity is a member of IBD Leaderboard at Investors.com.

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