Fast Money Madness: Round 2

Pacers' GM Shares His March Madness Pick

Thursday, 21 Mar 2013 | 5:45 PM ET

The "Fast Money" traders discuss where they think Qualcomm and Microsoft's stocks are headed; and Kevin Pritchard of the Indiana Pacers shares his March Madness pick.

For the second round of "Fast Money Madness" on Thursday, a couple of technology powerhouses face off: Qualcomm vs. Microsoft.

No. 3 Qualcomm vs. No. 6 Microsoft

StockMonster's Guy Adami liked the sixth-seeded underdog in this match-up.

"You think you know me, and you think I'm going Qualcomm, which I've loved for a while," he said. "But who's going to be better going forward?"

Microsoft, he argued, could remain range-bound if it gets in trouble. But Qualcomm had farther to fall.

Karen Finerman of Metropolitan Capital Advisors also backed the behemoth from Redmond, Wash.

"If there's anything that's rangebound, it's Microsoft. I know this as a longtime shareholder. The valuation is just absurd, but that doesn't matter," she said. "You're better off with Microsoft."

Keith McCullough of Hedgeye Risk Management tipped the scale in Microsoft's favor to help it advance to the next round.

"I'd go with Microsoft because I specialize in companies with $235 billion in market cap," he said. "Obviously, it's a joke to assume that you're going to know what Microsoft's going to do next, a company a company of that size."

OptionMonster's Jon Najarian took a contrarian position by backing Qualcomm.

"I think it's a second-half stock," he said, citing the use of the company's chipsets by both Samsung's phones and "phablets," as well as by Apple.

"Fast Money" Twitter followers also sided with Najarian in picking Qualcomm in the tech battle.

(See the full 'Fast Money Madness' Bracket.)

Trader disclosure: On March 21, 2013, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: Jon Najarian is long JPM; Jon Najarian is short GLD Puts; Jon Najarian is long SBUX; Jon Najarian is long NKE; Jon Najarian is long SSRI; Jon Najarian is long MU; Jon Najarian is long EGO; Jon Najarian is long UA; Guy Adami is long C; Guy Adami is long GS; Guy Adami is long INTC; Guy Adami is long AGU; Guy Adami is long MSFT; Guy Adami is long NUE; Guy Adami is long BTU; Keith McCullough is long MS; Keith McCullough is long TLT; Karen Finerman is long AAPL; Karen Finerman is long BAC; Karen Finerman is long C; Karen Finerman is long JPM; Karen Finerman is long WMT; Karen Finerman is long TGT; Karen Finerman is long MSFT; Karen Finerman is long GOOG; Karen Finerman is short JCP; Karen Finerman is short SPY; Karen Finerman is short MDY;