By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Tech stocks fell mostly to the
red on Tuesday morning, with Apple Inc. and Research In Motion Ltd.
leading the decliners despite a continued uptick from Dell Inc., as
investors speculation about the PC maker going private.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) gave up 0.6% to slip to 3,099,
while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) and the Morgan
Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) were down about 0.7% at last
check.
Dell (DELL) shares rose 1.7% to $12.50, adding to Monday's gains
that came about after reports said the PC giant is in talks with
two private-equity firms about going private. The Wall Street
Journal reported that the companies in the discussions were TPG and
Silverlake Partners.
Analysts that follow Dell said a buyout of the company is
possible, but there are many hurdles to overcome if the world's
third largest PC company goes private.
"The likelihood is low, as it would take sizable financing for a
company of Dell's size, with its $21 billion market cap," said Shaw
Wu of Sterne Agee. "A deal of this size would likely involve
multiple private-equity firms and we estimate that the majority of
[Dell's] businesses remain under structural and secular
pressure."
Apple (AAPL)shares fell 2.5%, to $489.55. On Monday, Apple's
stock took a hit on reports that the company has put off orders for
some parts for the iPhone 5 due to weaker-than-expected demand for
the smartphone.
Nomura Equity Research analyst Stuart Jeffrey cut his December
quarter iPhone sales estimates to 48 million from 50 million, and
lowered his revenue forecast for Apple to $53 million from $54.2
million, saying that he still believes margins on the iPhone "are
unsustainably high and will fall."
Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM) was upgraded to a buy rating from
underperform by Charter Equity on Tuesday morning. But shares of
the BlackBerry maker were down more than 4% after jumping more than
10% in the previous session.
In a note to clients, analyst Ed Snyder said the "curb appeal"
of the new BlackBerry 10 operating system expected to launch in the
coming weeks "could help investors look past Network pricing
issues." He cited his "preliminary review" of the new operating
system, adding that with "a compelling user interface, 70K
applications and RIM's hallmark QWERTY keyboard included in the SKU
line-up, we believe the BB10 platform will appeal to a healthy
percentage of the company's 80K subscribers, driving an upgrade
cycle."
Facebook Inc. (FB) was up a fraction as the social-networking
company invited members of the media to an event at its corporate
headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. Some analysts expected Facebook
to say more about its mobile efforts at the event.
Declines also came from Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), Oracle Corp.
(ORCL), and Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)
(NVDA)
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires