US stocks were changing hands higher Wednesday, but shares of Facebook and Seagate Technology PLC dropped, although the tech sector got a lift from gains in shares of Netflix.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) stated releasing a variety of fresh privacy controls on Wednesday, the firm’s most recent effort to address user worries regarding who can see their personal information on the world’s biggest social network.
Latest tools launched on Wednesday will make it easier for Facebook’s members to rapidly determine who can see the photos, comments and other information regarding them that appears on different parts of the website, and to request that any offensive photos they’re featured in be eliminated. [article_detail_ad_1]
Shares of Facebook (FB) declined 1.4% to settle at $27.58. The social-networking giant’s stock has advanced in excess of 30% in the previous three months.
Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:STX) shares dropped roughly 3% Wednesday, to $27.86 per share, as JP Morgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) analyst Mark Moskowitz trimmed his rating on the hard-disk drive manufacturer to underweight, or sell, from neutral.
In a research note, Moskowitz commented that macroeconomic and secular factors are expected to put stress on Seagate’s revenue and gross margins. Moskowitz stated that there are indications of fundamentals weakening in the hard-disk drive market coming year, and he trimmed his 2013 estimate for hard-disk sales to drop by 1.5% and earlier forecast of a gain 2.4% from 2012.
The tech stocks got a lift from Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), which shares rallied 5.4% to end at $90.73 following Morgan Stanley upgraded its price estimate for the digital-video provider to $105 from previous estimate of $80.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) mentioned Netflix’s prospective to interrupt the long-standing premium-cable ecosystem. Netflix was the top gainer on the S&P 500 which settled with a fractional gain.