By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
Online deal company shares surge a day ahead of results
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Tech stocks began the week with
broad gains Monday, with Groupon Inc. flexing its muscles a day
ahead of the online daily deal company's second-quarter earnings
results.
Groupon (GRPN) rose early, never looked back, and ended the day
with a gain of almost 9% at $7.02 a share, its highest close in
three months. Analysts who follow Groupon expect the company to
meet expectations for the quarter, but remain wary about what it
might say in its business outlook.
Groupon is trying to transition its business to more of a
traditional e-commerce model in which it attracts customers looking
for specific products as opposed to pushing out a variety of offers
via email notices. The company's share price has fallen 40% this
year.
Among bellwether tech stocks, gains came from Hewlett-Packard
Co. (HPQ), Facebook Inc. (FB), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and Microsoft
Corp. (MSFT).
Google Inc. (GOOG), which will soon mark its 10th anniversary
since it went public in August 2004, closed with a gain of $1.51 a
share at $582.27.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF), which contains many leading
tech stocks, rose 31 points to end the day at 4,383, and the
Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) finished the day up by
0.4%.
More must-read news from MarketWatch
What to look for in Groupon's earnings results
10 things you may not know about Google
"Seinfeld" about more than "nothing" for Netflix
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires