The Night Watch: Sun Micro Falters, Novell Moves Higher

Tech stocks were front and center after the close of regular trading Thursday, and many of the widely held issues were heading to the downside, including

Sun Microsystems

(SUNW) - Get Report

.

Sun, which was giving a midquarter update after the bell, was losing 3.8% to $7.12. The company said on a conference call that it saw no reason to change the fourth-quarter guidance it has already given.

After Sun posted its third-quarter results, the company said it expected to return to profitability in the fourth quarter. The company also said revenue should increase slightly from the third quarter.

According to First Call, analysts expect Sun to earn a penny a share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $3.3 billion. The company lost 1 cent and had a top line of $3.1 billion in the third quarter.

Overall volume was on the moderate side. In the first hour of extra trading on the Instinet platform, around 3 million shares changed hands among the top-20 volume movers.

Other well-known tech stocks were active.

Cisco

(CSCO) - Get Report

was down 0.9% to $16.75, and

Juniper

(JNPR) - Get Report

was off 0.2% to $10.20. The

Nasdaq 100 Unit Trust

(QQQ) - Get Report

was losing 0.2% to $31.94.

Elsewhere,

Oracle

(ORCL) - Get Report

was off 2%, and

EMC

(EMC)

was down 1.5%.

Microsoft

(MSFT) - Get Report

and

Intel

(INTC) - Get Report

were flat, while

Yahoo!

(YHOO)

was slipping 0.5%.

Ciena

(CIEN) - Get Report

, which lost 6% in regular trading, ticked up a penny to $6.09 after the regular session's close.

Novell

(NOVL)

was advancing in the extended session, climbing 2.9% to $3.91. After the close, the company posted earnings of 3 cents a share, excluding items. Analysts expected Novell to break even. After factoring in various items, Novell lost 48 cents.