By Rex Crum

Technology stocks ended up taking a mostly negative turn in afternoon trading Thursday, with Oracle Corp. among the decliners following what was considered to be a disappointing quarterly report from the business-software giant.

Oracle (ORCL) shares fell 61 cents, or 2.8%, to $21.52 after its late-Wednesday first-quarter results that included weak sales and the company gave few signs that an improvement will occur any time soon.

NetApp Inc. (NTAP) shares gave up 25 cents to close at $24.75. The data-storage company was downgraded by MKM Partners.

Palm Inc. (PALM) shed 22 cents a share to end the day at $14.44 ahead of the company's quarterly results, due after the market close.

Other declines came from Dell Inc. (DELL), Intel Corp. (INTC), EMC Corp. (EMC) and Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE).

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) fell 6.4 points to 2,126. The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) also closed in the red and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) gave up 1.7%.

Advancers included Apple Inc. (AAPL), which continued its recent stock surge and rose $2.68 a share, or 1.5%, to $184.55. A possible change in accounting regulations is seen as having a benefit to how Apple reports sales and earnings from the iPhone.

Online retailer eBay Inc. (EBAY) rose 11 cents a share to $24.43. Before the market opened, The Wall Street Journal reported that the founders of Skype have filed a copyright suit against eBay and a group of investors trying to acquire control of Skype.

Other gains came from Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO).