Wall Street Beat: Tech starts off season on mildly upbeat note

September 07, 2013

With the Labor Day holiday marking the unofficial end of summer on the markets, tech stocks got off to a fairly positive start in the new season as several major deals and the mobile phone market came under especially intense scrutiny. Major exchanges and market indexes were mixed Friday in the wake of a tepid government jobs report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 14,922.50, down by 14.98 points, while the Standard and Poor’s 500 index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq both closed up slightly higher for the day. The Dow, the S&P and the Nasdaq were all in positive territory for the week, however. The Nasdaq Computer Index of more than 100 tech-related stocks closed Friday at 1755.4, up by 3.82 for the day and also in positive territory for the week. Tech stocks were among the most heavily traded shares Friday, with Microsoft and Nokia in the top five volume leaders of the day. This is not surprising, given the announcement Tuesday that Microsoft will buy the Finnish company’s mobile phone business. Microsoft will pay €3.79 billion (US$5 billion) for Nokia’s Devices & Services business and €1.65 billion to license Nokia’s patents. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2048275/wall-street-beat-tech-starts-off-season-on-mildly-upbeat-note.html#tk.rss_all