By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Tech stocks were mostly in the
red in early trading Thursday, with Apple Inc. one of the rare
exceptions following a letter from activist investor Carl Icahn to
Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook.
Icahn, who owns about 53 million shares of Apple's stock,
reiterated his support of Cook. However, Icahn also said Apple's
stock is trading at about half of what it should be, and the
company should return more of its $133 billion cash hoard to
shareholders.
Apple (AAPL) was up by almost 1%, at $101.54 a share following
the release of Icahn's letter to Cook.
Elsewhere, decliners ruled investors' sentiment, with Advanced
Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) receiving some of the worst hits of the
day.
AMD fell by 8%, to $3.02 a share, after the chipmaker late
Wednesday surprised the market by naming Chief Operating Officer
Lisa Su as CEO, replacing Rory Read. The timing of the executive
change was viewed with concern, as AMD is set to report quarterly
results on Oct. 16.
Losses also came from IBM Corp. (IBM), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT),
eBay Inc. (EBAY) and Netflix Inc. (NFLX).
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) fell 32 points to
4,437. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was also down
sharply.
(Read more about the day's market action in Market Snapshot
http://www.marketwatch.com/storyno-meta-for-guid.).
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