TECH STOCKS: Apple's Up But Most Techs Follow Market South

By Rex Crum, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Losses weighed on tech stocks Friday, with mild gains from bellwether Apple Inc. unable to reverse the sector's overall negative course.

Apple (AAPL) rose 1.7%, to $439.93 even though its top rival Samsung made a splash late Thursday with the unveiling of its Galaxy S4 smartphone. Several analysts that cover Apple remained upbeat about the company's mobile-phone prospects even with the launch of the Galaxy S4. See: Apple shares up despite Galaxy S4 threat.

Groupon Inc. (GRPN) shares also performed well, rising 4.5%, to $5.31. The online daily deal company received a positive endorsement from noted Legg Mason investor Bill Miller, who while on the CNBC cable channel said he liked Groupon's stock "a lot" and noted the company has $1.2 billion in cash and no debt.

But Apple and Groupon were among the day's outliers, as investors reacted negatively to the Labor Department saying consumer prices in February rose 0.7%, the highest gain since June 2009. A surprise spike in gasoline prices was among the main reasons for the overall price increase. See: Inflation higheset in more than three years.

The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) fell more than 13 points to 3,245, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) gave up 1.6%.

One of the biggest percentage drops among tech stocks came from solid-state-drive maker Stec Inc. (STEC), which fell 14%, to $4.72 a share. On Thursday, Stec reported a wider quarterly loss and the company's top shareholder, Balch Hill LLC, called from for Stec co-founders Mark Moshayedi and Manouch Moshaeydi to resign from the company's board of directors. Balch Hill holds a 9% stake in Stec.

Online professional-services recommendation company Angie's List Inc. (ANGI) fell almost 4%, to $19.12. Late Thursday, Angie's List said Chief Financial Officer Robert Millard would step down from his job at the end of the quarter. Company controller Charles Hundt will serve as interim CFO until a replacement for Millard is found.

Analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, who recently initiated coverage of Angie's List with an outperform rating and $25-a-share target price, said Millard's departure as CFO was "a surprise, given that there was nothing really negative of late" to come from the company. See: Angie's List gets high marks as shares rise.

AOL Inc. (AOL) shares were down by more than 3% at $35.35. Late Thursday, comScore released its February search query statistics showing AOL market share remaining flat with January's results at 1.7%. Google Inc. (GOOG) held on to the top spot, with a 67.5% market share, up from 67% in January.

EBay Inc. (EBAY) fell 2%, to $50.75 a share and continued with a week of erratic market action for the online retailer. See: EBay comes back from "overdone" market reaction.

Losses also came from Seagate Technology (STX), Netflix Inc. (NFLX), KLA-Tencor Corp. (KLAC) and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO).

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