By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Apple Inc. struggled to remain in
positive territory a day after unveiling several new products, and
Twitter Inc. got a boost Wednesday on what was turning into a
back-and-forth session for the tech sector.
Apple (AAPL) was up by 57 cents a share to $98.56 in the wake of
the company's presentation of the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus,
as well as its anticipated Apple Watch smartwatch and a new
mobile-payment service called Apple Pay at a company event.
While many Wall Street analysts were upbeat about Apple's
announcements, Andy Hargreaves, of Pacific Crest Securities, cut
his rating on Apple's stock to sector perform, or the equivalent of
neutral, from outperform.
Twitter (TWTR) was up by 3.4% at $52.32 a share after UBS
analyst Eric Sheridan raised his rating on the social-media company
to buy from neutral. Sheridan also lifted his price target on the
stock to $65 a share from $50. Sheridan cited improvements in the
outlook for digital advertising among the reasons for his
upgrade.
Palo Alto Networks Inc. (PANW) shares rose 7.6% to $96.15 after
the security-technology company reported upbeat quarterly results
late Tuesday.
Declines came from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), eBay Inc. (EBAY),
Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) and Google Inc. (GOOGL).
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) edged up by 2 points to 4,554
while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) slipped into the
red.
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