TECH STOCKS: Techs Edge Lower As Amazon.com Shares Fall

By Benjamin Pimentel

The tech sector edged lower early Thursday, as shares of Amazon.com fell.

Amazon (AMZN) was down about 1.5% in early trading, as the Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) dipped by about 0.3% to 2,166, following Wednesday's strong gains.

But the tech-heavy benchmark was still up more than 1% for the week, after Intel Corp.'s results triggered a wave of optimism in the entire sector as the earnings season kicks off.

Three more tech heavyweights - IBM Corp., Google Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices -- will report results Thursday. IBM (IBM) shares were down about 0.9% early morning, while Google (GOOG) was off 0.4% and AMD (AMD) lost 1.3%.

Intel (INTC) was mostly flat, but other chip giants were in the red, including Texas Instruments (TXN) and SanDisk Corp. (SNDK). Xilinx Inc. (XLNX) fell nearly 2% after posting a drop in quarterly profit on Wednesday.

Other major tech players saw their shares decline, including Dell Inc. (DELL), Cisco Systems (CSCO) and Apple Inc. (AAPL).

Meanwhile, Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) and Adobe Systems (ADBE) advanced.