TECH STOCKS: Dithering In The WindTECH STOCKS: Dithering In The Wind

Investors continued their schizophrenic ways Thursday as our indexes closed mixed. People appear to be waiting for Friday's February employment report. But look for a definite direction Friday. After the close Thursday, Intel said first-quarter sales will disappoint.

Our information 100 index rose 4.1 points, or 1.2%, Thursday to close at 334.46, while the Nasdaq rose 21.76 points, or 1.1%, to 2,055.12. The S&P 500 rose, too--3.84 points, or 0.3%, to finish the day at 1,154.87. But the Dow fell 5.11 points, or 0.1%, to close at 10,588.

After the close, Intel lowered its first-quarter sales forecast, sending the chipmaker's stock--which was up more than 2% for the day--down in after-hours trading. Ask Jeeves' stock soared more than 40% after it said first-quarter and fiscal-year sales and earnings would top expectations and that it's buying Interactive Search Holdings for $343 million. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq-100 tracking stock closed at $36.76, up 34 cents, or 0.9%, on a trickling volume of just over 58 million shares.

The Labor Department said new unemployment claims fell to 345,000 last week, from 352,000 the previous week. But the critical numbers will come Friday when job numbers for February are released. Economists think 125,000 new jobs were created last month (slightly more than the 112,000 new jobs recorded in January) and that the unemployment rate held at 5.6%

See the full listing of all the companies in the information 100 and the top 5 percentage winners and losers for the last closing at information.com/stocks.