81.   Semiconductor companies continued to lose on concern their profits will suffer from lower chip prices and burgeoning inventories.

82.   Semiconductor companies had taken a hit at the end of the fourth quarter as investors feared that their exposure to Asia would lead to earnings disappointments.

83.   Semiconductor equipment companies also fell amid concern that falling prices for memory chips will delay building new chip plants, which require the latest equipment.

84.   Shares of computer chip companies gained amid expectations that semiconductor equipment company Applied Materials Inc. would exceed earnings estimates in its fourth fiscal quarter.

85.   Shares of semiconductor companies are expected to be active after a report showed new orders for computer chips declined in November.

86.   Since then, Motorola Inc., a major semiconductor company, and EMC Corp., a Hopkinton, Mass. company that makes storage equipment, have made similar announcements.

87.   Spokesmen for some other semiconductor companies said the lasers worked well.

88.   Stocks of semiconductor companies also climbed.

89.   Stocks of Silicon Valley companies rose for the fourth time in five days, led by Atmel Corp. and a spate of other semiconductor companies.