Thursday's Tech Winners & Losers

Tech stocks plummeted Thursday, as jittery investors turned their back on one of the few bull markets of recent weeks after bearish comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Cisco Systems(CSCO Quote) helped lead the way late Wednesday, when the network gear maker posted better-than-expected earnings, but warned about slowing sales. The company reported a fiscal first-quarter profit of 37 cents a share, a penny over estimates from analysts polled by Thomson Financial. Cisco's 17% revenue growth also was in line with estimates, but the company predicted slower orders from financial services firms and softness in the automotive market. Shares were sliding $2.96, or 9%, to $29.80.

Perhaps as troubling to investors, however, were the words of Bernanke, who appeared before the Joint Economic Committee in Washington. The Fed chief said spiking energy prices were stoking inflation amid slowing growth.

Few tech stocks were spared by the downturn. Apple(AAPL Quote) was shedding 4.4% to $178.03. Amazon.com(AMZN Quote) was losing 3.8% to $83.76. Google(GOOG Quote) was losing 4.8% to $697.52. BlackBerry maker Research In Motion(RIMM Quote) was dropping 6% to $125.04.

All of the above are components of the Nasdaq 100, which was plummeting 63.27 points to 2106.16.

Another Nasdaq component, Oracle(ORCL Quote), was sinking 6.8% after a Citigroup research report suggesting IT spending would slow in the near term and comments made by an IBM(IBM Quote) executive on Tuesday about the company's growth strategy became public. Oracle shares were sliding $1.50 to $20.60.

One of the few tech names on the rise Wednesday was HLTH Corp.(HLTH Quote). The WebMD.com publisher was adding 12.9%, after Friedman Billings Ramsay upgraded the stock to outperform from market perform. The upgrade came a day after the company beat Wall Street's revenue and profit expectations, but lowered guidance for the fourth quarter and full year. Shares were gaining $1.68 to $14.75.