Tech stocks were again at the center of attraction in the trading arena today, with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Research In Motion Limited (USA) (NASDAQ:RIMM) (TSE:RIM) still in the red, and Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) gaining on investor’s speculation about the PC maker going private.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) shares were up 0.5 percent to $31.10, around 1 PM EST, as the social-networking company held an event at its corporate headquarters in Palo Alto, California. Many experts predict the social networker will gain on its mobile efforts.
The NASDAQ Composite Index did cover some of its losses but was still down by almost 8 points at 3,109.
Dell’s stocks were the hot favorite, gaining about 4 percent to $12.83, over the 3 percent gain on Monday. The gain in the stocks came after the reports claiming the PC maker is in talks with two private-equity firms (TPG and Silverlake, according to WSJ) about going private.
“The likelihood is low, as it would take sizable financing for a company of Dell’s size, with its $21 billion market cap,” said Shaw Wu of Sterne Agee. “A deal of this size would likely involve multiple private-equity firms, and we estimate that the majority of [Dell’s] businesses remain under structural and secular pressure.”
Apple’s share lost about 2.63 percent to $489 in the afternoon trading session, after the reports claimed that the company has put on hold the orders for parts for the iPhone 5 owing to less than expected demand for the smartphone.
Research In Motion Limited (USA) (NASDAQ:RIMM) (TSE:RIM), despite getting an upgrade to a buy from underperform by Charter Equity on Tuesday, the BlackBerry maker’s share were down after gaining more than 10 percent in the previous session.
In a report, Ed Snyder wrote that the “curb appeal” of the new BlackBerry 10 operating system, due to launch in the coming weeks, could help investors look past network-pricing issues. He cited his “preliminary review” of the new operating system, adding that with “a compelling user interface, 70K applications and Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ:RIMM) (TSE:RIM)’s hallmark QWERTY keyboard included in the SKU lineup, we believe the BB10 platform will appeal to a healthy percentage of the company’s 80K subscribers, driving an upgrade cycle.” In the afternoon trading session, Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ:RIMM) (TSE:RIM)’s shares were down around 3.2 percent to $14.24.