Tech stocks mixed after-hours; Microsoft, Amazon.com report solid earnings

Google (Nasdaq:GOOG) is flat, eBay (Nasdaq:EBAY) rose 0.43 percent, IBM (NYSE:IMB) grew 0.20 percent, and Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL) was down 0.22 percent. In the regular session, all these stocks lost more than 1 percent, with Apple plunging 4.3 percent. 

Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) and Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN) reported earnings after the market closed.  Microsoft is up 0.34 percent, paring its loss of 1.72 percent during regular session.  Amazon.com was one of the few tech stocks to gain during the regular session; it gained 2.38 percent in the regular session and continues to climb in after-hours, gaining in additional 2.61 percent.

Microsoft reported record revenues and profits.  It reported an earnings per share of $0.60, barely beating estimates of $0.59 and up from the $0.47 figure last year.  Revenues were $19.02 billion for the quarter, a 14 percent year-on-year increase. 

The record revenues figure was partly driven by the success of Windows 7.  The firm managed to sell over 60 million copies of Windows 7 licenses for the quarter, making it the fastest selling operating system in Microsoft's history.

Revenues from its Windows & Windows Live Division increased nearly 70 percent while revenues from other divisions were flat or down year-on-year.

Amazon.com handily beat expectations as it reported an EPS of $0.85 for the quarter, up 42 percent year-on-year and beat expectations of $0.72 per share.  Net sales were $9.52 billion, up 42 percent year-on-year.

CEO Jeff Bezos credits Kindle for Amazon.com's success.  Millions of people now own Kindles, says Bezos. We sell 6 Kindle books for every 10 physical books.

Tech stocks were hurt by the broad market decline during the regular session.   The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.13 percent on disappointing unemployment claims while expectations of Fed Chairman Bernanke's confirmation failed to lift the market into positive territory.    

The durable-goods orders report, announced at 8:30 am, hurt the tech sector specifically; while overall orders increased 0.9 percent for December, orders for computer and electronic products fell 3.0 percent.  The Dow Jones U.S. Technology Index lost 2.95 percent during the regular session. 

The biggest decliners of the tech sector were Qualcomm (Nasdaq:QCOM) and Motorola (NYSE:MOT).  Qualcomm lost 14.24 percent on disappointing revenues and earnings forecast and Motorola lost 12.43 percent on disappointing revenues. 

Motorola is up 0.46 percent in after-hours trading while Qualcomm gained 0.37 percent.