By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A decline in Broadcom Corp.
highlighted action in the tech sector Wednesday after the
communications-chip maker gave a mixed update to its fourth-quarter
business outlook.
Broadcom (BRCM) share fell 69 cents to close at $44.29 after the
company said late Tuesday that it expects to report sales of $1.9
billion for the quarter ending Dec. 31. Earlier, Broadcom had
projected sales of $1.8 billion to $1.9 billion for the period.
However, Broadcom also said that gross margins from its products
would be down slightly from the third quarter, instead of remaining
flat.
Chip-equipment maker FormFactor Inc. (FORM) dropped by 58 cents
a share, or more than 6%, to close at $8.89. Earlier in the week,
FormFactor announced several changes to its board of directors.
Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) fell 18 cents a share to $16.45. Late Tuesday,
Yahoo confirmed it would cut 4% of its roughly 14,000 employees.
.
Declines also came from Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), IBM Corp.
(IBM), Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) and Intel Corp. (INTC).
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) fell more than 10 points to
2,617. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) closed with a
loss of more than 1%.
Gainers included Apple Inc. (AAPL), which edged up by 7 cents a
share to $320.36. Before the market opened, Piper Jaffray analyst
Gene Munster raised his price target on Apple's stock to $438 a
share from $431, mostly due to anticipation that the iPhone will
come to Verizon Wireless (VZ) next year.
Advances also came from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Netflix Inc.
(NFLX).
FleetCor Technologies rose $4.25 a share, or 18.5%, to $27.25
after making its public market debut Wednesday. The
electronic-payment-card technology company offered to sell 12.7
million shares at $23 apiece, which was at the low end of its
initially expected range of $23 to $26 a share.