By Rex Crum
Netflix Inc. and eBay Inc. held their ground Thursday, but much
of the rest of the tech sector tumbled into the red along with the
broad market heading toward the market close.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF), once up almost 20 points, was
down by 12 points at 2,445, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor
Index (SOX) gave up more than 1%.
Part of the turn south was blamed on the strength of the U.S.
dollar and growing concerns about the quality of recent earnings
reports.
But Netflix (NFLX) shares flexed their muscles, climbing $18.47,
or more than 12%, to $171.78. After the market closed Wednesday,
Netflix reported a third-quarter profit of $38 million, or 70 cents
a share, on $553.2 million in sales, up from earnings of $30.1
million, or 52 cents a share, on revenue of $423.1 million in the
year-ago period.
Netflix said its results were helped by an increase in new
subscribers, more of whom are using the company's online
video-streaming services for longer lengths of time.
EBay (EBAY) shares also performed well, climbing $1.72 a share,
or 6.7%, to $27.39. Late Wednesday, eBay said its third-quarter
earnings rose 23% from a year ago, mostly due to strength in its
PayPal business. For the quarter, eBay earned $432 million, or 33
cents a share, on $2.25 billion in sales.
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) shares rose $4.44, or almost 3%, to
$163.15 ahead of the online retailer's quarterly results, due after
the market close.
Small Gains also came from Oracle Corp. (ORCL), Google Inc.
(GOOG), EMC Corp. (EMC) and Intel Corp. (STX)
Seagate Technology (STX) shares edged up by 2 cents to trade at
$15.22. Late Wednesday, the hard-disk drive maker reported a 17%
drop in its fiscal first-quarter earnings, amid reports that the
company could soon be taken private.
But there were enough decliners to make their presence felt on
the sector.
Apple Inc. (AAPL) fell $1.76 a share to $308.90 a day after the
company unveiled new MacBook Air laptops and gave a preview of
Lion, the next upgrade to its Mac OS operating system.
Other losses came from Dell Inc. (DELL), Hewlett-Packard Co.
(HPQ), Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) and Texas Instruments Inc.
(TXN).