By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
Internet travel giant gets a boost after upbeat results
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Tech stocks started the week off
with broad gains Monday, highlighted by upbeat reaction to
Priceline.com Inc.'s second-quarter earnings results.
Priceline (PCLN) shares rose 2.2%, to close at $1,309, after the
company reported a second-quarter profit, excluding one-time items,
that topped analysts' expectations. But it issued a
weaker-than-expected third-quarter outlook, which investors
appeared to quickly shrug off.
"While the third-quarter guidance appears a tad light," said
Naved Khan, an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald. "Which may cause the
stock to fluctuate short-term, we note that historically,
management's guidance has proven to be conservative and [the] third
quarter is also seasonally the largest for Priceline."
Other online travel sites also rose Monday, with Expedia Inc.
(EXPE) up 1.7% to close at $83.94 and Orbitz Worldwide Inc. (OWW)
edging up by 2 cents a share to end the day at $8.88 a share.
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 0.5%, to $318.33 after the e-commerce
giant stopped taking pre-orders for DVDs and Blu-Ray discs for Walt
Disney Co. (DIS), reportedly due to a contract dispute between the
companies.
Other tech stocks that rose included Apple Inc. (AAPL), Netflix
Inc. (NFLX), Facebook Inc. (FB) and Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ).
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) rose 30 points to close at
4,401 and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) rose 1% on the
day.
More must-read tech news from MarketWatch:
Amazon halts pre-orders of Disney video titles
Is Zynga cannibalizing itself?
What to look for in Cisco's upcoming earnings
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires