Tech Winners & Losers: Apple
Tech stocks were largely flat on Friday along with the rest of the major market indices after Congress tried to ease the dour mood on Wall Street by passing a $700 billion bailout package.
The Nasdaq gained only 7 points - less than 1% -- to 1983.
Apple's
(AAPL) - Get Report
shares were on a roller coaster ride after a false rumor emerged that the company's revered leader, Steve Jobs, had suffered a heart attack.
The stock plummeted but came back up after Apple denied the report. It then dipped 2% to $98.12, falling below the $100 mark for the first time since May 2007.
Saleforce.com
(CRM) - Get Report
saw its shares fall 4.7% to $42.12 after UBS lowered its rating to sell from buy, noting signs of potential softness in utilization rates.
Shares of
Informatica
(INFA)
were falling 4.9% to $12.12 after the company disclosed in a SEC filing on Thursday that two of its directors had resigned this week: Janice Chaffin, a group president with Symantec, and Carl Yankowski, a former CEO of
Palm
(PALM)
. Infornatica said the departures were not the result of any disputes with management.
Shares of
SAP
(SAP) - Get Report
were also down after Goldman Sachs cut estimates on the company for the next three years. The firm also lowered its price target to $56 from $64.
The stock fell 4.1% to $46.86 in afternoon trading.
Shares of
Xyratex
(XRTX)
tumbled 9.2% to $7.99 after Friedman Billings cut its rating to market perform from outperform and lowered its earnings estimate for next year to $1.35 a share from $1.82 a share. The firm also expects gross margins for the disk drive equipment maker to be lower than expected.
