By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Tech stocks had a largely rough
go of it Monday, with Apple Inc. in the spotlight as anticipation
began to grow ahead of the company's quarterly earnings results,
due after the close of trading.
Apple (AAPL) shares rose 1.2%, to $552.39, in advance of the
company's fiscal first-quarter earnings report. Analysts surveyed
by FactSet estimate Apple will earn $14.09 a share on revenue of
$57.47 billion for the quarter ended in December, up from earnings
of $13.87 a share on $54.5 billion in sales in the same period in
2012.
Sales of iPhones and iPads are expected to dominate Apple's
results, and the company may also face questions about the latest
salvos fired by billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn. Last
week, Icahn disclosed he raised his stake in Apple by $500 million,
to more than $3 billion, and said Apple is doing "a great
disservice" to its shareholders by not increasing its stock buyback
plans.
In addition to Apple, gains also came from Hewlett-Packard Co.
(HPQ), Micron Technology Inc. (MU) and Pandora Media Inc. (P).
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) gave up 22 points to fall to
4,105, but the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) managed to
edge into positive territory.
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) was among the decliners, as the
networking equipment maker's shares gave up 1% to trade at $21.95.
Before the market opened, J.P. Morgan analyst Rod Hall cut his
rating on Cisco to underweight, or sell, from neutral, and lowered
his price target on the company's stock to $17 a share from $22.
Hall said Cisco is facing weakness in emerging markets and dealing
with more customers putting resources into software-defined
networks [SDNs], which emphasize software over traditional network
hardware products like those of Cisco.
Other declines came from Twitter Inc. (TWTR), Facebook Inc.
(FB), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Google Inc. (GOOG).
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