By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch)--Tech stocks put in a broad slate of
gains Thursday, with bellwethers Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.
among the advancers as investors awaited the final pricing of the
Alibaba Group IPO.
Apple (AAPL) shares edged up by 21 cents to close at $101.79 as
reports said Apple will hold an event on Oct. 21 to unveil new
models of the iPad and iPad Mini, and release the next version of
its Macintosh operating system, called Yosemite.
Amazon (AMZN) rose $1 a share to end the day at $325 after the
company revamped its line of Kindle and Fire tablets, including a
6-inch screen Fire HD for $99, a new Fire HD Kids Edition for $149
that comes with a two-year guarantee, and the Kindle Voyage
e-reader for $199 that has free 3G cellular-network
connectivity.
Oracle (ORCL) shares rose 41 cents to close at $41.55. After the
market closed, Oracle said Chief Executive Larry Ellison was
stepping down to become the company's executive chairman and chief
technology officer. Ellison is being replaced by co-presidents
Safra Catz and Mark Hurd.
Oracle also reported a fiscal first-quarter profit of $2.2
billion, or 48 cents a share, on revenue of 48.6 billion. Excluding
one-time items, Oracle would have earned 62 cents a share. Analysts
surveyed by FactSet had forecast Oracle to earn 64 cents a
share.
Investors also awaited the final pricing of Alibaba's (BABA)
share in advance of the company's expected public debut Friday.
Gains also came from Facebook Inc. (FB), Twitter Inc. (TWTR),
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) and Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ).
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF), which includes many leading
tech stocks, rose 31 points to close at 4,593, and the Philadelphia
Semiconductor Index (SOX) rose 1.5%.
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