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Trending: Twitter and Yahoo feel the weight of a downgrade

Last updated: 20:40 11 Jul 2016 BST, First published: 15:40 11 Jul 2016 BST

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It was not proving to be a great week for tech stocks, as both microblogger Twitter (NASDAQ:TWTR) and web portal Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) were downgraded by brokers.

On a day when the tech-heavy Nasdaq index peeped over 5,000 mark for the first time this year and the S&P 500 hit a historic high, Twitter shares were down 1.2% at $17.86 after the company was downgraded to "neutral" from "buy" at SunTrust. The broker said user growth – a nemesis for Twitter - and engagement continue to be "challenged.”

In a way, this was bad luck for Twitter, which earlier this year appeared to have hit a plateau on user growth but was all set to rise further.

But the newsday was heavy for Twitter in other areas too. Twitter chief executive, Jack Dorsey, had his Twitter and Vine accounts hacked.

The hacking group which posted on Dorsey’s account, OurMine Security, is the same group which has previously defaced social media accounts belonging to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google boss Sundar Pichai. This time, OurMine released a few Vine videos through Dorsey’s account, which cross-posted to his Twitter feed.

Meanwhile, in a deal that some are already calling a “trophy”, Twitter has struck a deal with broadcaster CBS to stream both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions later this month, the company announced Monday.

That means Twitter has permission to broadcast the CBSN feed, the company’s 24-hour digital news streaming service, and anyone online can watch for free even if they don’t have a Twitter account. It’s unknown whether or not Twitter paid CBS for the streaming rights, but that is highly likely.

It’s also uncertain whether or not Twitter will make money from the stream through advertising as it will with the ten NFL games it plans to stream later this fall, where CBS is again a partner for those games.

Meanwhile, Pivotal Research downgraded Yahoo to "hold" from "buy," based in part on declining market share in digital advertising, while SunTrust downgraded Yahoo to “Neutral”.

That was rocky for a stock which is currently the subject of takeover suitors and no one yet knows what kind of a future it will have.

Yahoo stock was up 0.9% at $38.06. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, was underperforming, up 0.8% at 4,994.

But there was better news for WebMD Health Corp (NASDAQ:WBMD). Mizuho began coverage on the health care information website operator with a "buy" rating, based on valuation and a dominant market share in a growing pharma online ad market, among other factors.

WebMD shares were up 2.8% at $61.92.

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