TECH STOCKS: Oracle Slips, Pandora Jumps As Techs Rise

By Rex Crum, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Oracle Corp.'s new partnerships with Microsoft Corp. and Salesforce.com Inc., and gains from Pandora Media Inc., stood out among tech stocks Tuesday as much of the sector managed to come back from the prior day's losses.

Oracle (ORCL) shed 18 cents a share to trade at $29.99 after the company unveiled a new partnership with Salesforce (CRM) in which the companies will work together to improve their capabilities in cloud computing under a nine-year deal.

The deal with Salesforce came after Oracle said late Monday it reached a new partnership with Microsoft (MSFT) that will let Oracle's software run on Microsoft's enterprise platforms, including the Windows Azure cloud infrastructure.

Salesforce shares rose 1.4%, to $37.46, but Microsoft was off by 14 cents a share at $33.59.

Microsoft was also getting attention a day ahead of its Build conference, in which the software giant will give developers more of a look at the Windows 8.1 operating system upgrade, which has been code-named Windows Blue.

Pandora's (P) shares rose more than 7% to $16.22 after the online radio company said its service is now available in more than 100 automobile models and now has more 2.5 million listeners using its service in cars. The number of car models offering Pandora has doubled from the same period a year ago.

Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) was up by 3.3%, at $24.55 as the company held its annual shareholders meeting. Chief Executive Marissa Mayer used the meeting to tout Yahoo's gains in its mobile business due to revamp apps for email and sharing photos.

Advances also came from Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), Seagate Technology (STX), Intel Corp. (INTC) and eBay Inc. (EBAY).

The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) rose almost 22 points to 3,342, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was up almost 2%.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) was off by $1.93 a share at $400.53. Before the market opened, Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Ittai Kidron cut his price target on Apple's stock to $460 a share from $480 and lowered his iPhone sales estimates from the June quarter by 1 million units.

Netflix Inc. (NFLX) shares were down almost 2% at $211.71 after Bernstein Research analyst Carlos Kirjner cut his rating on Netflix to underperform from market perform, but raised his price target on the stock to $180 a share from $125. In a research note, Kirjner said Netflix's current stock price reflects "unrealistic" expectations across its business areas.

Demand Media Inc. (DMD) shares fell almost 21% to $6.47 after the website operator cut its second-quarter revenue forecast due to a reduction in referral traffic from search engines such as Google. Analysts as JMP Securities and Stifel Nicolaus also cut their ratings on Demand Media's stock.

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires