By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Apple Inc. was one of the few
gainers among tech stocks Thursday after activist investor Carl
Icahn called upon Chief Executive Tim Cook to expand the company's
efforts to return more of its cash hoard to shareholders.
Icahn, who owns about 53 million shares of Apple's stock,
reiterated his support for Cook, yet also said Apple's stock is
trading at about half of what it should be, and the company should
return more of its $133 billion in cash to its investors.
Apple (AAPL) managed to eke out a gain of 22 cents a share and
close at $101.02.
In other Apple-related news, branding consultancy Interbrand
said Apple remained the most-valuable brand in the world, with its
value climbing 21% from a year ago to $118.9 billion.
Elsewhere, decliners ruled investors' sentiment, with Advanced
Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) receiving some of the worst hits of the
day.
AMD fell by 10% to close at $2.95 a share after the chipmaker
late Wednesday surprised the market by naming Chief Operating
Officer Lisa Su as CEO, replacing Rory Read. Some found the timing
of the executive change puzzling, as AMD is set to report quarterly
results on Oct. 16.
Losses also came from IBM Corp. (IBM), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT),
eBay Inc. (EBAY) and Netflix Inc. (NFLX).
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) fell 90 points, or
2%, to close at 4,378. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX)
also gave up 2.7%
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