2 Big-Cap Telecom Leaders Near Fresh Highs

Call it the late-spring stall.

As the broad market struggles for traction, most big-capitalization leading stocks are consolidating, trading a few percentage points off their recent highs.

In many cases, stocks hadn't climbed much from their prior buy points before starting their new corrections.

But telecom stocks have asserted themselves.

Research In Motion RIMM jumped 8.02, or 6%, to 140.98 Monday.

The move came after rival Nokia NOK unveiled new smart phones.

Reuters said investors believe the new phones don't threaten RIM's leadership in the business market.

Shares of Research In Motion pulled back to their 10-week moving average, where they're finding support.

Qualcomm QCOM made a two-plus-year high last week and is up more than 25% for 2008 so far, well ahead of its industry group.

On Friday, the cell phone chipmaker raised its earnings guidance for its June-ending third quarter and for the full year.

"Chip and handset volumes were exactly in line with Qualcomm's original expectations, but the greater percentage of high-end data-centric devices and wireless infrastructure upgrades should lead to higher chip and handset average sales prices," ThinkPanmure analyst Mike Burton said in a note quoted by the Associated Press.

Qualcomm cleared an 11-week pattern in mid-May, but its fundamentals remain spotty.

Earnings growth slowed over the past few quarters, from 31%, 29%, 21% to 8%.

Even with the improved earnings outlook, analysts' consensus estimate for the current quarter is for 54 cents a share, a decline of 1% from the year-ago period.

The only other technology name in today's Big Cap 20 is IBM IBM.

Big Blue is finding support at its 10-week moving average.

The company's earnings growth accelerated from 7%, 12%, 15%, 16%, 24% to 36% the past several quarters. Sales growth has been on an improving trend.