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NEW YORK (AP) -- With few exceptions, shares of semiconductor companies inched lower Monday as the broader market slipped ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision. Shares of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. were among those edging higher, after JPMorgan analyst Christopher Danely issued an upgrade on the stock. Danely lifted his rating on AMD to "Neutral" from "Underweight" and said the company's recently released Barcelona server chip "closes the performance gap between AMD and Intel in the server segment." "We also believe the strong PC environment and share gains should help AMD improve its cash flow," he added in a note to clients. AMD's shares rose 10 cents to $12.79 in midday trading. Shares of larger rival Intel Corp., meanwhile, fell 9 cents to $24.84. Shares of graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp. rose 10 cents to $32.35. Lehman Brothers analyst Tim Luke said in a note to investors the company is experiencing above-seasonal sales of GPUs, or graphics processing units, which are used to render processing-intensive images. Luke reiterated an "Overweight" rating on Nvidia and said he is "incrementally more constructive on the company's near-term outlook." The strong GPU sales stem largely from solid demand for notebook computers. Elsewhere, Stifel Nicolaus analyst W. Blake Fischer said he's looked inside Apple Inc.'s new touch screen iPod, dubbed iTouch, to see how it has changed from the iPhone. The iTouch began selling on Friday. "For the most part, the teardown confirms many of the suppliers we expected in our earlier report...Marvell, Broadcom, STMicro, and Texas Instruments are all suppliers and should be earning from $2 to $5 per unit, depending on the part," he wrote. The analyst added that "solid iTouch or iPhone volumes are most likely to be a positive to the earnings and valuation of Marvell's shares." Shares of Marvell Technology Group Ltd. fell 26 cents to $16.14. Shares of Broadcom Corp. slid 70 cents, or 2 percent, to $34.80. Shares of Switzerland-based STMicroelectronics NV fell 58 cents, or 3.5 percent, to $16.11. The stock has traded in the range of $15.85 and $20.84 in the past 52 weeks. Shares of Texas Instruments Inc. slipped a penny to $34.67. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Sector Index fell 4.23 points to 482.77.
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