By Rex Crum
Technology stocks closed out the week on a roundly disappointing
note Friday, helping to drag down the Nasdaq Composite Index by
more than 3% investors showed their displeasure with the entire
market following a disappointing U.S. jobs report.
Nearly every sector leader stumbled into the red after the
latest nonfarm payrolls expanded by 431,000 jobs, but only 20,000
of those weren't temporary jobs related to the U.S. Census.
Among leading tech stocks, Dell Inc. (DELL), Microsoft Corp.
(MSFT), Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) and Intel Corp. (INTC) each fell
more than 3%.
Declines also came from Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE), Research In
Motion Ltd. (RIMM), IBM Corp. (IBM) and Google Inc. (GOOG).
Apple Inc. (AAPL) fell $7.16 to $255.97 in advance of the
company's worldwide developers' conference, which starts on
Monday.
Not even an analyst's rating upgrade could keep Oracle Corp.
(ORCL) out of the red, as the business-software company's stock
shed 71 cents to $22.13.
Caris & Co. analyst Curtis Shauger raised his rating on
Oracle to buy from above average, saying that the company is
benefitting from the ongoing depreciation of the euro against the
U.S. dollar.
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) fell $2.13, or almost 6%, to $34.42,
and Seagate Technology (STX) was off by 79 cents, or 5%, to close
at $15.15. According to figures from iSuppli, the companies are
both claiming a piece of the title of No. 1 hard-disk drive
maker.
The losses weighed on the Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF), which
fell almost 84 points, or 3.6%, to 2,219. The Philadelphia
Semiconductor Index (SOX) shed 4.4% and the Morgan Stanley High
Tech 35 Index (MSH) slumped by 3.6%.