By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- It was turning into a mostly
negative day for tech stocks Wednesday, with Apple Inc. and
Facebook Inc. slipping into the red in advance of those companies'
quarterly results and Amazon.com Inc. also retreating even after
announcing a new online content deal involving shows from HBO.
Apple (AAPL) was down by $3.10 a share at $528.45. Analysts
surveyed by FactSet estimate Apple will report a profit of $10.19 a
share on revenue of $43.7 billion for its fiscal
second-quarter.
Online ads are expected to be a main area of focus for Facebook
(FB) when the social-networker delivers its first-quarter results
after the close of trading. Analysts are expecting Facebook to earn
24 cents a share, up from 12 cents a share during the year-ago
period.
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) shed $2.50 a share to trade at $326.80.
Before the market opened, Amazon said it has reached a licensing
deal with HBO (TWX) that will make its Prime Instant Video service
the exclusive online-only subscription site for shows such as "The
Sopranos" and "Six Feet Under." With the deal, Amazon becomes the
first online-subscription-video service to carry HBO
programming.
Amazon's leading video-streaming rival, Netflix Inc. (NFLX) was
down by almost $11 a share, or 3%, at $361.95. During a discussion
about Netflix's quarterly earnings on Monday, Netflix Chief
Executive Reed Hastings called Amazon's Prime Instant Video a
"complementary" service to Netflix and that HBO was Netflix's
biggest rival.
Declines also came from Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), eBay Inc.
(EBAY), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO).
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) fell more than 24 points to
4,137 and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was also in
the red.
More tech news from MarketWatch:
Shades of Apple-Microsoft in growing Netflix-Comcast rivalry
Apple insiders have a lot riding on company's results
Amazon in deal to stream HBO shows
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