Chicago, IL 3/7/12 (StreetBeat) -- Shares of Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) supported tech sector gains Wednesday as the Silicon Valley giant geared up for the roll-out of its new iPad tablet.The tech sector also joined a broad market rally spurred by data showing growth in private sector jobs.
Apple’s stock rose nearly 1% to $533.26 in early trades ahead of the expected launch of what is being referred to as the iPad3. Apple has remained the dominant player in the relatively new category.
The Nasdaq Composite Index edged up 0.4% to 2,923. The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index were each up a fraction. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up about 7 points.
Gains also came from shares of Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), Yahoo Inc (Nasdaq: YHOO) and Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT).
On the downside, shares of Pandora Media (NYSE: P) plunged more than 20% after the online music company posted a weaker-than-expected forecast. Read more on Pandora.
Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney cut his rating on the stock to neutral from buy, citing “mobile monetization challenges.”
“As a speculative buy, with no profitability track record and no near-term profitable outlook, Pandora always carried very little margin for error,” Mahaney wrote. “And now there’s error.”
He argued that “with content costs constantly rising, monetization of mobile usage has to keep rising. But the fiscal 2013 guide implies that this monetization will be flat.”
Raymond James analyst Aaron Kessler also downgraded the stock to market perform from outperform saying in a note, “We believe the shares are likely to be range-bound until we see greater traction with mobile monetization, particularly local radio advertising, and improved operating margins.”
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