Friday's Tech Winners & Losers

Away from earnings, Amazon (AMZN Quote) climbed 1.6% after a report that the Internet retailer will soon launch an online music service to rival Apple's (AAPL Quote) iTunes. The New York Post said the Amazon service will launch the week of Sept. 17 and carry around 1 million tracks. Amazon has previously pushed back the timetable on the service's introduction multiple times, though, the Post noted. Shares of Amazon closed up $1.23 to $79.91.

For its part, Apple was up 1.6% amid news that General Electric's (GE Quote) NBC Universal division will no longer sell TV shows on iTunes. NBC decided not to renew its agreement with Apple because of a pricing dispute over the shows. The agreement doesn't expire until December, but Apple said it will not sell NBC's fall programming as a result of the move. Shares of Apple, which have been climbing all week ahead of an iPod-related announcement Wednesday, closed up $2.23 to $138.48.

As for the broader sector tracker, the Nasdaq 100 index gained 1.3% to 1988.73.