TECH STOCKS: Apple Leads Techs Down; AMD Gets Late Spike

By Dan Gallagher, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Tech stocks closed well in the red on Wednesday, as the latest Fed statement drove the markets down further, and large-cap techs such as Apple, IBM and Amazon.com saw notable declines.

The Fed said it would maintain its current monetary policy even in the face of some weak national economic data for the month of March. The Dow closed the session down nearly 140 points.

The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) was down 0.9% to 3,299, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) fell 0.8% and the Morgan Stanley High-Tech Index (MSH) was down 0.9%.

Apple (AAPL) shares gave up 0.8% to slip to $439.29 after the company debuted its bond offering on Tuesday afternoon, and the bonds saw high trading volumes on Wednesday morning, sources told MarketWatch.

Goldman Sachs analyst Bill Shope trimmed his earnings estimates slightly for Apple's next three fiscal years, citing in a note "our updated assumptions around the company's capital structure and resulting net interest expense." He left his other estimates unchanged and still rates the stock as a buy.

IDC also reported that Apple lost market share in the tablet space in the first quarter, though the company's iPad still led the market with nearly 40% of total sales in the period.

One notable gainer was Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) , which jumped more than 14% to close at $3.22. The spike in trades came in the final two hours of trading; Barron's reported some deal rumors at trading desks, and one broker noted that the company put two new chips on sale.

Facebook (FB) shares closed down 1.2% at $27.43 ahead of what is expected to be a report of strong revenue growth with a flat earnings number. The results are due after the closing bell on Wednesday.

Yelp (YELP) shares fell 2.8% to $25.30 ahead of the company's results -- also due after the closing bell. Revenue is expected to jump more than 60% with a smaller net loss.

Cybersecurity technology company Sourcefire Inc. (FIRE) saw its shares rise more than 7%, to $51.33. Late Tuesday, Sourcefire reported weaker-than-expected quarterly results, and gave a forecast that fell short of Wall Street's expectations. However, much of the negativity was attributed to a temporary slowdown in federal-government sales due to the sequestration crisis in March, and analysts were still generally upbeat about Sourcefire's prospects.

Trulia (TRLA) shares climbed more than 12% after the online real-estate firm reported a strong jump in first-quarter revenue and issued a projection that was ahead of analysts' estimates.

Brightcove Inc. (BCOV) shares surged more than 24% after the company reported a 24% revenue gain for the first quarter.

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