The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas noted progress in the July 17 Beige Book business survey, saying “high-tech orders and production were flat to slightly up” since the June 5 report. The San Francisco Fed's Tech Pulse Index also reflects the shift, rising for a fourth consecutive month to 98.67 in June, the highest since 2008. This index tracks the health of the U.S. IT industry using investment, consumption, employment, industrial-production and shipment data.

The pace of tech-hardware spending is picking up as“purchasing managers are starting to press on the gas a little,” said Christian Bertelsen, who oversees more than $1.5 billion in assets as chief investment officer of Global Financial Private Capital in Sarasota, Florida . Companies are investing in part to replace old equipment after purchases were delayed last year, he said.

Eoin Treacy's view The sharp pullback experienced by Microsoft and Intel last week has weighed on the Nasdaq but as highlighted in yesterday's review of network and cyber security firms, the outlook for the technology sector is far from uniform.

The Nasdaq-100 found support in the region of the 200-day MA from late June and rallied to post a new recovery high by last week. It pulled back fairly sharply on Friday suggesting at least a pause and possible unwinding of the short-term overbought condition. A break in the medium-term progression of higher reaction lows, currently near 2800, would be required to begin to question medium-term upside potential.

Both Arrow and Avnet, mentioned in the title above, are worthy of mention. They both hit medium-term peaks in 2011 and have been ranging with upward biases for more than two years. They are now testing their respective peaks and while there is scope for some consolidation of recent gains in the current area, sustained breaks in their progressions of the higher reaction lows would be required to question medium-term upside potential.