Weakness in Research in Motion (NasdaqGS: RIMM) and Microsoft (NasdaqGS: MSFT) was set to hold back PowerShares QQQ (NasdaqGM: QQQ) on Friday after RIM lowered its fiscal first-quarter forecasts and Microsoft reported quarterly number.
Research in Motion shares were off more than 10% in premarket trading Friday after the company lowered its profit forecast for the current quarter that ends in late May on weakness in BlackBerry sales. It stuck to its full-year outlook.
Separately, Microsoft shares were down more than 1% in preopen action after the company released quarterly earnings.
“Despite generally solid results, we believe the Windows results again illustrate how consumer PC weakness continues to offset solid enterprise demand,” said Evercore Partners in a note. “In our view, more success in Online, mobile, and tablets is necessary for the multiple to expand from current levels, and we believe the shares are likely range-bound given these concerns.”
The two tech stocks are components in PowerShares QQQ, one of the most actively traded ETFs. It was fractionally negative in premarket trade Friday.
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