Tech Flat as Traders Weigh Strong Earnings Season -- Tech Roundup

Shares of tech companies were flat as traders digested a strong earnings season.

"Strong Information Technology earnings growth was driven by a combination of 17% growth in sales and margin expansion," said analysts at brokerage Goldman Sachs, in a research note. "An impressive 81% of S&P 500 Information Technology firms beat consensus earnings-per-share expectations by more than one standard deviation, the best performance in at least 19 years."

Google is facing a new front in its regulatory battles after Missouri's attorney general launched a broad investigation into whether Google's business practices violated the state's consumer-protection and antitrust laws, citing alleged manipulation of search results to favor its own services.

Chip designer Qualcomm rose after its board rejected the unsolicited $105 billion takeover proposal made by Broadcom last week, saying it "significantly undervalues" the company.

A slide in the price of Bitcoin over the weekend highlighted the risks for technology companies exposed to volatile digital currencies.

Analysts at brokerage Morgan Stanley said both Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia have significant exposure to another highly valued digital currency, Ethereum. "We believe that total graphics sales for Ethereum mining in 2017 will be $800 million or so, and will decline by 50% in 2018," said analysts at brokerage Morgan Stanley. Ethereum market could be more of an issue for "AMD, which hasn't been clear on the size of the exposure, than for Nvidia, which has carefully outlined exposures and ensured that the Street models budget for significant declines," the brokerage said.

Rob Curran, rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 13, 2017 17:31 ET (22:31 GMT)