By Dan Gallagher, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Tech stocks sank deep into the
red by Wednesday's closing bell, as a market-wide selloff put
further pressure on the sector that was helped by drops on sector
leaders Apple Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) was down 1.5% to close at
3,164, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) shed 2.2%
and the Morgan Stanley High-Tech Index (MSH) fell by 1.6%.
The Dow (DJI) closed down more than 100 points, with the S&P
500 (SPX) down 1.2%, after the release of minutes from the Federal
Open Market Committee's January meeting showed some Fed members
expressing concern about asset purchases totalling $85 billion a
month.
Apple (AAPL) shares fell 2.4% to close at $448.85. The previous
afternoon, lawyers for hedge-fund Greenlight Capital sought a court
order blocking a vote on a proposal for Apple's annual shareholder
meeting next week. The proposal would require the company to seek
shareholder approval for issuing any preferred stock, similar to
the type that Greenlight's David Einhorn has been seeking from the
company.
Apple's annual shareholder meeting is set for next Wednesday,
Feb. 27, at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that Apple's Chinese
manufacturing partner Foxconn has frozen the hiring of assembly
line workers after a higher-than-expected return rate of current
employees following the Lunar New Year holiday.
Shares of H-P (HPQ) took a hit, falling by 1.1% to close at
$16.70. The drop came as results from arch-rival Dell Inc. (DELL)
painted a more challenging picture of the PC market, with analysts
noting that Dell's aggressive pricing during the recently ended
quarter may have hurt H-P's own efforts to maintain share.
H-P will report its own results on Thursday afternoon.
Among other large-cap techs, Cisco Systems (CSCO) , Intel (INTC)
, EMC (EMC) Google (GOOG) , Amazon.com (AMZN) and Oracle (ORCL) all
lost more than 1% by the closing bell.
BlackBerry (RIMM) lost 4.5% to close at $13.71. Analysts are
questioning early sales of the new Z10 smartphone in the U.K. and
Canadian markets.
Garmin (GRMN) shares slid more than 9% to $35.54 after the maker
of GPS devices reported a 22% drop in fourth-quarter earnings and
projected results for the full fiscal year that were below Wall
Street's expectations.
Demand Media Inc. (DMD) rose by 6% following plans to split the
company in two.
Leap Wireless (LEAP) shares fell more than 8% to $5.61 after the
prepaid wireless carrier reported a sharp drop in subscriber
additions for the fourth quarter.
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