LONDON (ShareCast) - The expected rally in tech shares failed to materialise in Wall Street’s opening performance today as the market reacted to rising crude prices.

The Nasdaq had been expected to jump in early deals, following the declines last week however the tech index fell as news remained scarce.

Sun Microsystems is expected to announce later today that it will start using chips from Intel as well as Advanced Micro Devices, sending shares in the latter lower.

Elsewhere a new cooperative agreement between Intel, Hewlett Packard and IBM is also expected to be announced today called the Linux Foundation, to rival Microsoft’s dominant Windows system.

Aerospace group Boeing worked its way lower after broker Wachovia downgraded the shares to "market perform" from "outperform".

Meanwhile Pfizer fell despite reporting a better than expected fourth quarter performance. Adjusted earnings fell 15% in the period as a patent expired but actual profits soared to $9.45bn from $2.73bn after the sale of its consumer arm to Johnson & Johnson.

Oil prices are on their way back up again with US light crude for March delivery added 34 cents to $53.74 a barrel following a cold snap.

US investment bank Citigroup announced plans to buy ABN Amro Mortgage Group, a residential mortgage loan venture between LaSalle Bank and ABN Amro. Citigroup is buying about $9bn in net assets although terms were not disclosed.

Citigroup also announced that Sallie Krawcheck will move from chief financial to global wealth management chief officer. She will take up the new role once a successor has been found.

Amazon.com secured an early lead after a Stifel Nicolaus analyst described the shares as “dirt cheap” alongside an upgrade to “buy” from “hold”.

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