TECH STOCKS: Salesforce, GameStop Lead Tech Stocks

By Rex Crum, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Tech stocks closed the week out Friday with mild gains, led by Salesforce.com Inc. and GameStop Corp. following those companies' upbeat earnings.

Salesforce (CRM) shares rose more than 7% to close at $59.80 after the cloud-software company late Thursday reported earnings excluding one-time items of 13 cents a share on $1.32 billion in revenue, while analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast Salesforce to earn 12 cents a share on sales of $1.29 billion. Salesforce also said deferred revenue, or sales from future software subscriptions, rose 31% from a year ago.

Videogame retailer GameStop (GME) rose 6% to close at $42.90 a share after the company's fiscal second-quarter profit more than doubled from a year ago. The company said demand remained high for Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Xbox One and Sony Corp.'s (SNE) PlayStation 4 game consoles.

By the end of the day, gains also had come from Apple Inc. (AAPL), Netflix Inc. (NFLX), Google Inc. (GOOGL) and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO).

(Read more about other active stocks in Movers & Shakers: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gamestop-soars-aeropostale-sinks-foot-locker-reports-earnings-friday-2014-08-21.)

Many eyes were on Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen, who addressed the U.S. central bank's annual summer conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Yellen said the main issue facing the Fed now is when it should consider raising interest rates. The overall market was largely unfazed by Yellen's comments.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) rose 6.5 points to close at 4,538 and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) also closed with a small gain.

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