Intel Corp (INTC)

[Saturn V]

The fact that Intel rose less than market has to do with the $25 barrier. Intel was above this level for a few months at the end of the last bull market in late 2007. It hit $25 for a few days in May 2008. Since July 2009, Intel has been a traders stock, range bound between $18-$22. A lot of people made money by taking advantage of the limited trading range.

So there will be a lot of profit taking, a lot of automatic sell orders triggered at $25, and a lot of buyers pausing and awaiting a lower entry point. Anyhow Intel has significantly outperformed the market since mid September, and so today was an opportunity for the market to catch up with Intel. Intel has a Beta close to 1.0, which means that typically in the short term Intel and the market tend to move together.
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=INTC+Interactive#symbol=intc;range=20110914,20111024;compare=%5Egspc;indicator=volume;charttype=area;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=;

There is significant number of shorts on Intel which will have to be covered, adding to the number of potential buyers during the next two months.