iApple Products

Customers look at tablets on sale for reduced prices, behind the Apple logo on display at a Best Buy store on Thanksgiving Day in Alexandria, Va., on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 2013. EPA/MICHAEL REYNOLDS (MICHAEL REYNOLDS)

Today: Apple (AAPL) stock falls from its 2013 high set on Black Friday, but analysts like the company's holiday performance so far and a San Francisco startup could help it track consumer sentiment. Also: eBay (EBAY) gains, Twitter falls.

The Lead: Apple stock falls, but analysts like performance amid another acquisition

Apple reached its highest intraday stock price of 2013 for the second consecutive session Monday, but the Cupertino company closed with a loss despite analysts' praise for Apple's kickoff to the holiday shopping season. After the bell, Apple confirmed it has also been shopping: For the second time in less than a month, the company spent millions to acquire a company with technology that could come in handy in a variety of ways.

Apple moved to a 2013 high of $564.33 in Monday's session, but weakness in the afternoon brought the company's share price down 0.9 percent on the day to $551.23. The decline went against many reports and analysts' notes, which indicated that holiday shoppers were targeting Apple devices during the annual kickoff of the holiday shopping season in the United States, the weekend-plus that spans from Black Friday to Cyber Monday.

While Black Friday will reportedly underperform expectations based on last year's shopping totals, Apple's hopes for an "iPad Christmas" appear to be coming true. The Consumer Electronics Association reported Monday that tablets were the most popular electronic device purchased through Black Friday, which Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White called "a clear positive for Apple with the recently introduced iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display, combined with the discounted first-generation iPad mini."

InfoScout reported that Apple was already seeing big sales through the largest retailers in the United States, with iPads topping sales at Walmart and Target. At Target, for example, iPads accounted for 18 percent of all sales, InfoScout CEO Jared Schrieber told MarketWatch.

"The holiday shopping weekend saw at least one clear, definable trend, and that was strong tablet sales," Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair wrote in a Monday note, adding that he believes Apple sold about 70 percent or more of the tablets purchased in the shopping season's kickoff.

Two analysts who spent the weekend at retail outlets selling Apple devices increased their price targets on Apple stock. Global Equities Research's Trip Chowdhry bumped his target from $725 to $800 after reportedly surveying about 300 people at nine Apple stores and five Target locations, and reported that "demand for Apple products are at an all-time high." Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore increased his price target from $575 to $625 after he checked in at more than 100 stores and found "demand for iPhones, iPads and Macs was very robust and Apple stores enjoyed heavy traffic throughout the holiday weekend."

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster focused his Apple optimism on consumers' tweets Monday, noting that iPads were hot on Black Friday and iPhones showed up on Twitter a lot on Cyber Monday. Apple appears ready to take over monitoring of Twitter sentiment, however: After Monday's trading was complete, the company confirmed the purchase of San Francisco's Topsy Labs, which mines the reams of information presented on Twitter.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the acquisition Monday afternoon, including a confirmation from Apple, though the reported purchase price of more than $200 million was not confirmed. The purchase price is lower than the reported $350 million-$360 million price tag from Apple's purchase of PrimeSense, which was confirmed last week, but the technology could be just as malleable as the motion-sensing tech nology Apple acquired in that deal.

While Apple could use Topsy technology to measure consumer sentiment related to its products, a la Munster, the WSJ pointed out that Topsy's tech could suggest music for iTunes Radio listeners, helping that new offering gain traction against rival Pandora, or be used to boost the tech giant's struggling iAd platform. TechCrunch posited that Apple could be targeting better performance for its consumer-facing online shopping portals for apps media, improving suggestions and search in the App and iTunes stores.

SV150 market report: eBay gains on holiday-shopping reports, Yahoo tops $37

While Black Friday consumers may have spent less in brick-and-mortar stores this Black Friday, online shopping seemed to gain ground, and with Cyber Monday headed for records, online-focused retailers gained Monday despite overall losses on Wall Street.

Reports that suggested online shopping was growing on Black Friday were followed by early reports of a record-breaking Cyber Monday, boosting eBay. The San Jose company gained 1.6 percent to $51.35 after early returns reportedly showed the sales increasing 31 percent on average Thursday through Saturday, better than rival Amazon's 29.7 percent growth; SunTrust analyst Rob Peck increased his rating and price target for eBay, noting that recent declines have "created a much better risk/reward entry point for investors." Amazon hit a record intraday high of $399 after founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said on "60 Minutes" Sunday night that his company plans to start delivering purchases with drones, but shares fell 0.3 percent overall Monday to close at $392.30.

Yahoo (YHOO) joined Apple in confirming an acquisition Monday, with the Sunnyvale company picking up a startup that focuses on natural language processing, which could come in handy with many Yahoo services and fits well with the company's previous purchase of Summly. Yahoo gained only 0.1 percent Monday after the acquisition was announced, but that was enough for shares to close at $37.01, the first time Yahoo has closed higher than $37 since 2006, before Microsoft refused to pay that price for Yahoo in 2008. Twitter dropped 1.9 percent to $40.78 as the "quiet period" involving the banks that were selected as underwriters in Twitter's initial public offering ended, allowing them to publish analysts' notes on the company; Five banks released notes on the San Francisco company's stock, with only one labeling the shares a "Sell." The same waiting period expired for Campbell-based Barracuda Networks, which went public a day ahead of Twitter, and the security and storage company shot 11.1 percent higher to $23 after analysts published glowing reviews for the stock.

The end of OCZ Technology continued to draw nearer, as the San Jose company expanded on last week's announcement that it is seeking to sell all of its assets to Toshiba in a bankruptcy proceeding. In Monday's news release, the company said Toshiba has agreed to pay $35 million for the company's assets, which OCZ CEO Ralph Schmitt called "the best outcome und er our current corporate conditions." OCZ shares more than doubled, gaining 14.7 cents to 26 cents a share and pushing its market capitalization back to about half the expected price Toshiba will pay.

Up: Ruckus, eBay, Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, Juniper, SanDisk, Facebook, Yahoo

Down: SolarCity, Tesla, Workday, Twitter, LinkedIn, VMware, Zynga, Electronic Arts (ERTS), Yelp, Applied Materials, Salesforce, Apple, Cisco

The SV150 index of Silicon Valley's largest tech companies: Down 7.3, or 0.51 percent, to 1,432.86

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index: Down 14.63, or 0.4 percent, to 4,045.26

The blue chip Dow Jones industrial average: Down 77.64, or 0.5 percent, to 16,008.77

And the widely watched Standard & Poor's 500 index: Down 4.91, or 0.3 percent, to 1,800.90

Check in weekday afternoons for the 60-Second Business Break, a summary of news from Mercury News staff writers, The Associated Press, Bloomberg News and other wire services. Contact Jeremy C. Owens at 408-920-5876; follow him at Twitter.com/jowens510.