Tech stocks rise despite Apple and Twitter losses

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Tech stocks mostly rose Tuesday and turned in an upbeat trading session as the sector withstood losses from Apple Inc., Netflix Inc. and Twitter Inc.

Apple (AAPL)  shed $3.89 a share, to close at $540.04 after the company said that it sold more than $10 billion in apps from its App Store last year. Apple also said more than $1 billion in apps were sold in December alone, and nearly 3 billion apps were downloaded during the month.

Decliners also included Netflix Inc. (NFLX) , which fell more than 5% to close at $339.50 a share. Morgan Stanley analyst Scott Devitt cut his rating on Netflix to underweight, or sell, from equal weight citing growing competition from services such as Hulu Plus, HBO Go and Amazon Prime Instant Video.

Read more about Netflix and the expectations for the second season of "House Of Cards".

Twitter Inc. (TWTR)  shares gave up more than 7%, to close at $61.46 and add to Monday's losses, which were spurred on by Morgan Stanley's Devitt cutting his rating on the company. Late Tuesday, Twitter said it would take questions in the form of tweets on its upcoming earnings conference call.

Despite those losses, there was enough strength in the sector to help the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (NFLX)  rose 39 points to close at 4,153. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX)  also closed in positive territory.

Yahoo Inc. (YHOO)  shares rose 2.5%, to $40.92 as Chief Executive Marissa Mayer gave a keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Network-security technology company Palo Alto Networks Inc. (PANW)  rose 3.7% to end the day at $59.99. Late Monday, Palo Alto said it would acquire privately held cyber-security technology company Morta Security for an undisclosed amount.

Pandora Media Inc. rose (P) 3% to close at $32.44 a share; Western Digital Corp. (WDC) ended the day up by 3.3% at $85.65, Micron Technology Inc. (MU) rose 5% to $21.73 a share, and IBM Corp. (IBM) shares added almost 2% to end the day at $189.71.

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