By Rex Crum, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- It was turning into a mostly negative day for tech stocks Wednesday, with Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. slipping into the red in advance of those companies' quarterly results and Amazon.com Inc. also retreating even after announcing a new online content deal involving shows from HBO.

Apple (AAPL) was down by $3.10 a share at $528.45. Analysts surveyed by FactSet estimate Apple will report a profit of $10.19 a share on revenue of $43.7 billion for its fiscal second-quarter.

Online ads are expected to be a main area of focus for Facebook (FB) when the social-networker delivers its first-quarter results after the close of trading. Analysts are expecting Facebook to earn 24 cents a share, up from 12 cents a share during the year-ago period.

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) shed $2.50 a share to trade at $326.80. Before the market opened, Amazon said it has reached a licensing deal with HBO (TWX) that will make its Prime Instant Video service the exclusive online-only subscription site for shows such as "The Sopranos" and "Six Feet Under." With the deal, Amazon becomes the first online-subscription-video service to carry HBO programming.

Amazon's leading video-streaming rival, Netflix Inc. (NFLX) was down by almost $11 a share, or 3%, at $361.95. During a discussion about Netflix's quarterly earnings on Monday, Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings called Amazon's Prime Instant Video a "complementary" service to Netflix and that HBO was Netflix's biggest rival.

Declines also came from Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), eBay Inc. (EBAY), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO).

The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) fell more than 24 points to 4,137 and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was also in the red.

More tech news from MarketWatch:

Shades of Apple-Microsoft in growing Netflix-Comcast rivalry

Apple insiders have a lot riding on company's results

Amazon in deal to stream HBO shows

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires

eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY)
Historical Stock Chart
From Feb 2024 to Mar 2024 Click Here for more eBay Charts.
eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2023 to Mar 2024 Click Here for more eBay Charts.