By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Tech stocks began with broad
gains Monday, with Apple Inc. among the sector's advancers as
Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes raised his rating on the iPhone maker
ahead of its upcoming earnings report.
Apple (AAPL) rose 1.3%, to close at $96.45 a share after Reitzes
lifted his view on the company to overweight, or buy, from equal
weight, and also raised his price target on Apple's stock to $110 a
share from $95. Reitzes said that he believes Apple Chief Executive
Tim Cook "has solidified his strategy and regained the confidence
of Apple stakeholders in many ways, reversing many of the warning
signs we saw earlier in the year." Apple is scheduled to report its
fiscal third-quarter results on July 22.
Apple also took to its Chinese Web site to refute allegations
that the location-tracking function of the iPhone is a threat to
China's national security.
Other leading tech stocks that closed with gains Monday included
Facebook Inc. (FB), Oracle Corp. (ORCL), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and
Netflix Inc. (NFLX).
Intel Corp.(INTC) rose almost 1% to close at $31.49 and Yahoo
Inc. (YHOO) also added almost 1% to end the day at $35.70. Both
companies are scheduled to report quarterly results after the close
of trading Tuesday.
EBay Inc. (EBAY) shed 34 cents a share to close at $51.16. On
Sunday, Pacific Crest Securities analyst Chad Bartley cut his
rating on eBay to sector perform from outperform. Bartley said that
a combination of a security breach at eBay earlier this year, and a
change in Google Inc.'s (GOOGL) search algorithm likely had a
negative impact on eBay's business during the second quarter of the
year.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) rose almost 25 points to end
the day at 4,440 and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX)
also ended the day in positive territory.
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