TECH STOCKS: Google Spurs Tech Gains Following Earnings

By Rex Crum, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch)--Tech stocks looked to close the week out on a high note Friday, with Google Inc. rising in the wake of the company's upbeat second-quarter results.

Google (GOOGL) climbed more than 3%, to $600 a share, following its late-Thursday report in which the company said revenue grew 22% from a year ago, to almost $16 billion.

Gains also came from Apple Inc. (AAPL), Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), which edged up by 11 cents a share to $44.64 a day after announcing 18,000 job cuts.

The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF), which lists many leading tech stocks, was up almost 20 points at 4,383. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) rose almost 1%.

Some noteworthy decliners emerged, with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) falling more than 19% to $3.69 a share. Late Thursday, AMD reported a second-quarter loss of 5 cents a share on revenue of $1.44 billion, an improvement over a loss of 10 cents a share and $1.16 billion in sales a year ago. But analysts surveyed had forecast AMD to earn 3 cents a share.

AMD also forecast third-quarter revenue in a range of $1.43 billion to $1.51 billion, while analysts had earlier forecast the company's sales at $1.57 billion. Analysts at FBR Capital Markets and Bank of America/Merrill Lynch cut their ratings on AMD's stock following the report.

IBM Corp. (IBM) was down almost 1% at $190.89. The tech-services giant reported better-than-expected second-quarter results Thursday.

Netflix Inc. (NFLX), which reports second-quarter results on Monday, was down by $1.26 a share at $438.10.

More must-reads from MarketWatch:

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