Technology stocks jittery

TECHNOLOGY stocks took it on the chin at midday Monday after a deluge of earnings downgrades for chips roiled the sector and frustrated an already jittery market sentiment that's factoring in a war scenario with Iraq.

Around 11.35am ET, the Nasdaq composite lost 19.61 to 1,271.79. The Dow Jones industrial average dipped 24.97 to 8,287.31 after an initial swing into positive territory. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 7.61 to 882.20.

"It's a quiet trading day. We've been on either side of unchanged and there's not much by way of market-moving news," said James McGuire, trader with LaBranche & Co. “On the economic front, the July inventory numbers were as expected, but we're seeing weakness in chip stocks from downgrades in the sector."