By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Tech-sector stocks saw mixed
movement Friday morning, with the notable exception of gains from
Applied Materials Inc., Rackspace Hosting Inc. and Autodesk
Inc.
Applied Materials (AMAT) shares rose almost 7% to $19.95 after
the semiconductor equipment maker reported a fiscal second-quarter
profit led by sales from its silicon systems business.
Rackspace (RAX) surged by more than 20% to $36.99 a share, after
the cloud-services company said in a regulatory filing that it has
hired Morgan Stanley to explore strategic options for the business.
The company said it has been "approached by multiple parties" in
recent months about exploring everything "from partnership to
acquisition."
Design-automation software company Autodesk (ADSK) saw its
shares rise almost 6%, to $50.60, after it reported a fiscal
first-quarter profit of 32 cents a share on $593 million in sales.
Wall Street analysts had forecast Autodesk to earn 21 cents a share
on revenue of $568 million.
Mild gains also came from eBay Inc. (EBAY), Micron Technology
Inc. (MU) and Sandisk Corp. (SNDK)
Google Inc. (GOOGL) shares were off by almost 1%. The company
named veteran marketing executive Ivy Ross as the new head of its
Google Glass business.
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), Facebook Inc. (FB), Apple Inc. (AAPL)
and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) saw shares decline Friday.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) shed 14 points to 4,055.
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