By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Tech stocks put in a broad slate
of gains Friday, with Oracle Corp. leading the advance following
its quarterly results and Apple Inc. climbing to a new high as the
iPhone 5 made its debut.
Oracle (ORCL) shares rose more than 3% early before moderating.
The stock was last up nearly 1% to $32.53 after the software
company reported a fiscal first-quarter results that showed
earnings rising, but revenue slipping from the same period a year
ago. Oracle also said sales of software rose, but hardware revenue
declined by 19% from last year's first quarter.
Apple (AAPL) continued to flex its muscles, rising nearly 1% to
as high as $704.33 as the company's new iPhone 5 smartphone went on
sale. Apple had earlier said it had taken more than 2 million
pre-orders for the device.
Mobile carriers that offer the iPhone 5 were also on the rise
Friday, with Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and AT&T Inc. (T)
posting modest gains, and Sprint Nextel Corp. (US-S) rising more
than 2% to $5.56 a share.
Skyworks Solutions Inc. (SWKS) shares rose more than 6% to
$25.55, and Avago Technologies Ltd. (AVGO) was up 5% at $35.35 as
early tear-down studies showed those companies' chips being used in
the iPhone 5.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) rose about 0.5% to 3,191,
while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) rose 0.8%.
One notable decliner was BlackBerry maker Research In Motion
Ltd. (RIMM), as its shares fell 5% to $6.55 after the company said
BlackBerry service suffered an outage in Europe, the Middle East
and Africa. RIM later said such service had been restored.
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