TECH STOCKS: Apple Leads Broad Tech Push North

By Rex Crum, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Gains from Apple Inc. stood out among a broad slate of advancers in the tech sector Tuesday and investors reacted positively to the company's better-than-expected earnings results.

Apple (AAPL) shares rose more than 2% to $101.91 a share in the wake of the company's late-Monday report. For the quarter ended in September, Apple reported a profit of $1.42 a share on $42.1 billion in revenue, up from earnings of $1.18 a share on $37.5 billion in sales in the same period a year ago. The results also topped the estimates of analysts surveyed by FactSet, who forecast Apple to earn $1.30 a share on revenue of $40 billion.

Apple's results were fueled by a 16% gain in iPhone shipments, which totaled 39.3 million units, and a strong performance by company's line of Mac computers, as Apple sold 5.5 million Macs, a 21% increase from a year ago. Analysts that follow Apple said the company has reached a point that its competitors may never be able to catch up to.

Printing-technology company Lexmark International Inc. (LXK) was also having a good day of it, as its shares rose 6% to $42.04. Before the market opened, Lexmark reported a third-quarter profit of $1.05 a share, excluding one-time items, on revenue of $918.1 million, which exceeded analysts estimates of a profit of 92 cents a share on $890 million in sales.

Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) was up by 1% at $39.75 a share ahead of the company's third-quarter results, due after the close of trading. Wall Street analysts estimate Yahoo will report earnings of 32 cents a share on $1.05 billion in sales for the quarter.

IBM Corp. (IBM) shares were one of the day's big decliners, falling more than 3% to $163.34. IBM remained in the red for a second-straight day after reporting disappointing quarterly results and abandoning its earnings goals for 2015. (Read more about the challenges facing IBM in Rex On Techs: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ibm-delivers-tricks-instead-of-treats-2014-10-20.)

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) rose 55 points, or 1.3%, to 4,370. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was up by almost 2%.

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