TECH STOCKS: Tech Stocks Take A Cyber Monday Beating

By Rex Crum, MarketWatch Apple, Amazon in the red as holiday retail sales disappoint

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Tech stocks were mostly in the red on Cyber Monday, joining the broader market in a retreat that appeared to be fueled by reports of negative retail sales following the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.

A report from the National Retail Foundation said total retail spending between Thanksgiving and Sunday fell 11% from a year ago, to $50.9 billion, with shoppers spending an average of $380.95 each during the post-holiday weekend.

Internet-retailing giant Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) saw its shares decline by 1.2%, to $334.20 Monday. The company didn't give any exact sales figures for the weekend, saying only in a press release that "Black Friday sales of Kindle e-readers and Fire tablets on Amazon.com have grown significantly year over year."

Amazon also cut the price of its Fire TV set-top box to $69 from $99 in a one-day Cyber Monday deal.

Among other notable Internet and e-commerce companies, losses came from eBay Inc. (EBAY), Google Inc. (GOOGL), Netflix Inc. (NFLX) and Chinese Internet giant Alibaba Group (BABA).

Groupon Inc. (GRPN), which had been up by as much as 4%, was clinging to a gain of just 3 cents a share at $7.56. Before the market opened, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch analyst Paul Bieber raised his rating on the online retailer to buy from neutral, and lifted his price target on the stock to $9.50 a share from $8. Bieber cited factors such as a large and growing customer base and diminishing e-mail headwinds among the reasons for his upgrade.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) was also a notable decliner, falling almost 3% to $115.63 a share. Morgan Stanley said Monday it is cutting its holdings in Apple by 1%, and downgraded the entire tech sector to market weight from overweight. Morgan Stanley said it has been "extremely difficult" to implement an investment discipline in the tech sector of late.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) fell by 62 points, or 1.3%, to 4,730 and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was off by 1.5%.

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