By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
Apple, Facebook among leaders still on the rise
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch)--Tech stocks tried to hold on to
gains as trading advanced Thursday following initial broad upbeat
reaction to the latest U.S. jobs data.
Among tech stocks on the rise were Apple Inc. (AAPL), Facebook
Inc. (FB), Netflix Inc. (NFLX), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and online
retailer Overstock.com Inc. (OSTK).
Security software company Symantec Corp. (SYMC) rose 3% to
$24.52. Late Wednesday, Symantec reported a fiscal first-quarter
profit of 45 cents a share, excluding one-time items, on revenue of
$1.74 billion, while Wall Street analysts had forecast Symantec to
earn 42 cents a share on $1.67 billion in sales.
Much of the sector's early gains were tied to investors' getting
behind the Labor Department's report that said initial jobless
claims fell below 300,000 last week.
But decliners began to take over, with losses coming from
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), Yahoo Inc. (YHOO), Oracle Corp. (ORCL)
and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN).
Online discount retailer Zulily Inc. (ZU) fell more than 6%, to
$36.91 a share. Late Wednesday, Zulily reported a fiscal
second-quarter profit of 6 cents a share on $285 million in
revenue, while analysts had forecast earnings of 4 cents a share on
revenue or $272 million. The company forecast third-quarter revenue
in a range of $275 million to $287.5 million, while analysts had
pegged sales at $283.3 million.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) rose by 3 points to
4,358.
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