By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Losses from tech bellwethers such
as Apple Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. got the attention of
investors Thursday as the tech sector started the year off on a
rough note.
Apple (AAPL) was off by $7.57 a share, or 1.4%, at $553.43.
Before the market opened, Wells Fargo analyst Maynard Um cut his
rating on Apple to market perform from outperform largely due to
concerns about the company's gross margin growth opportunities.
Um's downgrade was countered by the opinion of Cantor Fitzgerald
analyst Brian White, who said in a research note that Apple was his
"top large cap pick" for 2014 and that research suggests Apple has
been working hard to excite investors in 2014 with new product
innovations."
H-P (HPQ) was also having a rough go of it, as the tech giant's
shares were trimmed by 40 cents, or 1.4%, to $27.58. Reaction was
negative to an H-P regulatory filing earlier this week in which the
company said it would cut an additional 5,000 jobs in 2014. Those
cuts come on top of 29,000 positions H-P had earlier said it would
eliminate.
Intel Corp. (INTC) gave up 1.4%, to slip to $25.60 a share.
Analyst Vijay Rakesh, of Sterne Agee, said Thursday that there is
evidence of weakness in the PC market in the first quarter of the
year, and that PC orders are likely to be below Intel's own
forecasts of a decline of 6% to 7% from the fourth quarter of
2013.
Losses also came from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), AOL Inc. (AOL),
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN).
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) fell by 27 points to 4,149,
while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was off by
1.3%.
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