By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch)--Gains from Applied Materials Inc.,
Rackspace Hosting Inc. and Autodesk Inc.stood out among tech stocks
Friday and helped the sector shake off early losses and close the
week out on an upbeat note.
Applied Materials (AMAT) shares rose 8% to close at $20.21 after
the semiconductor equipment maker reported a fiscal second-quarter
profit led by sales from its silicon systems business.
Rackspace (RAX) surged by almost 18% to end the day at $36.12 a
share after the cloud-services company said in a regulatory filing
that it has hired Morgan Stanley to explore strategic options. The
company said it has been "approached by multiple parties" in recent
months about exploring everything "from partnership to
acquisition."
Design-automation software company Autodesk (ADSK) saw its
shares rise 8% to $51.67 after it reported a fiscal first-quarter
profit of 32 cents a share on $593 million in sales. Wall Street
analysts had forecast Autodesk to earn 21 cents a share on revenue
of $568 million.
Chinese online beauty products company Jumei International
Holding Ltd. (JMEI) had a solid first-day of trading as a public
company, as its shares rose almost 10% to close at $24.18. Jumei
raised $245 million in an IPO that was closely watched for signs
that it may pave the way for a strong public debut of Chinese
Internet leader Alibaba.
Gains also came from Apple Inc. (AAPL), eBay Inc. (EBAY), Micron
Technology Inc. (MU) and Netflix Inc.
Google Inc. (GOOGL) shares fell by 82 cents to $528.30 as the
company named veteran marketing executive Ivy Ross as the new head
of its Google Glass business.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) erased an early double-digit
point loss to rise 21 points and close at 4,090.
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