Stocks Waver After TARP News; Techs Gain

Stocks turned mixed Tuesday after the banks approved to repay TARP loans were named.

But tech stocks held onto their gains after Texas Instruments raised its earnings and revenue targets for the second quarter, signaling improving demand in the chip market. Shares jumped more than 5 percent.

Ten banks will be allowed to repay capital they received through the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The companies are expected to give back some $68 billion, about twice what the government expected.

Still, the ten stocks were mixed. The best performer was Capital One , which saw its shares jump about 4 percent.

"What that's telling you is that banks are spending all their money paying back the government and not doing what that money was intended to do, which was to stimulate the economy and lend that money," Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald, told Reuters.

American Express , also on the list, was the best performer on the Dow, followed by chip maker Intel , which caught the Texas Instruments tailwinds.

Among those notably absent from the list were Bank of America , Citigroup and Wells Fargo .

Late Monday, Citigroup said it expected to begin its much-delayed $58 billion stock swap later this week as part of a plan that could leave the government with a 34 percent stake.

Banks continue to hold large amounts of toxic assets and the stress tests should be repeated if unemployment worsens, a Congressional Oversight Panel report showed.

And all ten banks under order to raise additional capital have submitted their plans, the Federal Reserve said.

On the economic front, wholesale inventories shrunk by 1.4 percent in April, more than the 1.2-percent decline expected.

European shares were higher, with energy stocks boosted by buoyant oil prices, but Asian stocks were mixed, with investors worried the recovery rally was overdone.

Market participants are awaiting a $35 billion auction of three-year U.S. Treasury notes later in the day and auctions of 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasurys later in the week to get a better picture of rate expectations.

General Motors shares were up about 20 percent. The automaker announced this morning that former AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre will assume that role at GM, succeeding Kent Kresa. Kresa will remain interim chairman until GM emerges from bankruptcy protection.

Meanwile, Italy's Fiat won't walk away from its deal to buy Chrysler, a spokesman said after the U.S. Supreme Court delay threw the deal into doubt. The deadline for the deal is June 15.

Procter & Gamble shares skidded amid buzz that the company, which makes Gillette razors and Tide detergent, is about to name Robert McDonald as its new CEO. McDonald has been the front-runner expected to succeed longtime CEO A.G. Lafley.

Apple shares fell a day after the company slashed the price on its entry-level iPhone to $99.

Shares of rival Palm , which released its iPhone competitor, the Pre, this past weekend, rose. American depositary shares of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion also rose.

Still to come: A House Financial Services subcommittee will hold a hearing on OTC derivatives and swaps today, and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner testifies before a Senate Appropriations committee on the Treasury's budget request.

In the steel sector, Standard & Poor's cut its credit rating on ArcelorMittal , the world's largest steelmaker, and issued a negative outlook.

Still, shares of ArcelorMittal as well as those of US Steel gained.

Crude oil rose about a dollar, trading above $69 a share, ahead of afternoon inventory data from the America Petroleum Institute as analysts polled by Reuters expect a decline in weekly crude supplies.

This Week:

MON-FRI: Apple developers' conference
TUESDAY: Joint congressional hearing on TARP oversight
WEDNESDAY:Weekly mortgage applications; Fed's Evans speaks; Weekly crude inventories; federal budget; Fed's beige book
THURSDAY: Retail sales; weekly jobless claims; business inventories; Fed's Lockhart speaks; Earnings from Nat Semi
FRIDAY: Import/export prices; consumer sentiment

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