By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Sony Corp. was one of the few
gainers among tech stocks Monday after the consumer electronics
company reported upbeat initial sales for its new PlayStation 4
gaming console in the U.S. and Canada, as much of the sector
followed the social-media sector to close in the red.
Sony (SNE) closed with a gain of 1.2%, at $18.72 a share in the
wake of last Friday's launch of the PlayStation 4 in most of North
America. Sony said it sold more than 1 million of the gaming
consoles in the first 24 hours after going on sale.
But few other tech stocks managed to withstand a market selloff
that shaved almost 37 points, or nearly 1%, off the tech-heavy
Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF), which closed at 3,949.
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) shares fell by nearly $3, to $366.18.
Evercore Partners analyst Ken Sena raised his price target on
Amazon's stock to $450 a share from $400 due to what he sees as
higher value coming from the company's Amazon Web Services
business.
Social-media stocks had some of the day's biggest losses, as
Barron's warned of a bubble in the sector in an article over the
weekend.
Yelp Inc. (YELP) slumped almost 9%, to $64.43; Facebook Inc.
(FB) fell by 6.5% to close at $45.83; Pandora Media Inc. (P) ended
the day down by almost 6% to close at $29.71, and Twitter Inc.
(TWTR) gave up 6.5% to end the day at $41.14.
Wunderlich Securities analyst Blake Harper started coverage of
Twitter with a sell rating and $34-a-share price target. Harper
called Twitter "a great company," but with an "overvalued
stock."
Other losses came from Yahoo Inc. (YHOO), Google Inc. (GOOG) and
Apple Inc. (AAPL).
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), which holds its annual shareholders
meeting on Tuesday, was off by 1.7% to close at $37.20 a share.
Analysts at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch cut their rating on
Microsoft's stock to underperform, or the equivalent of sell, from
neutral due to concerns about who may replace Chief Executive Steve
Ballmer at the software giant.
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) gave up 2.4% to close at $15.78 a share
after Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore cut his rating on the
graphics chipmaker to underweight.
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