Biz Break: Apple's top apps: Yes, Facebook, 'Angry Birds' are on the list

Today: Apple is closing in on 10 billion downloads from its App Store. Plus: eBay earnings. And: Nintendo's new 3DS; Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs earnings.

Apple's top apps

Apple -- the Cupertino maker of Mac computers and "i" devices -- is counting down today to the 10 billionth download from its iTunes App Store.

In the meantime, it's listing the top all-time apps by number of downloads for the iPhone and the iPad.

The top free iPhone apps include Facebook, Pandora, Google Mobile, Shazam and Movies by Flixster. The top paid iPhone apps include "Doodle Jump," "Tap Tap Revenge 3," "Pocket Gods," "Angry Birds" and "Tap Tap Revenge 2.6."

As for the iPad, the

top free apps include Pandora, Google Mobile, Movies by Flixster, Google Earth and Yelp. The top paid iPad apps include SoundHound, "Stick Wars," FlightTrack, "Backbreaker Football" and Calorie Tracker.

A day after Apple reported a record holiday quarter, the company's stock finished regular trading today at $338.84, down $1.81, or 0.5 percent from Tuesday's closing price. Earlier, though, the stock reached an all-time high of $348.60 before turning downward.

eBay earnings

San Jose online auction powerhouse eBay this afternoon reported a $559 million profit for its holiday quarter, down 59 percent from a year earlier, when the company

logged a $1.4 billion gain from a sale of a controlling stake in Internet calling service Skype. Fourth-quarter revenue jumped 5 percent to $2.5 billion.

"We are driving strong global growth at PayPal and strengthening our core eBay business," eBay CEO John Donahoe said in a statement accompanying the results. "And we are innovating quickly in areas such as mobile, which is helping to position us at the forefront of trends shaping the future of shopping and payments."

Excluding certain costs, eBay earnings came in at 52 cents a share. On that basis, eBay's results exceeded Wall Street estimates. For the current quarter, eBay expects revenue of $2.4 billion to $2.5 billion. For all of 2011, eBay expects revenue of $10.3 billion to $10.6 billion -- exceeding Wall Street forecasts of $10.2 billion, according to Bloomberg News.

The results from eBay came just after the stock markets closed today. Earlier, eBay shares finished regular trading at $29, down 45 cents, or 1.5 percent, from Tuesday's closing price. The stock was up in after-hours trading.

Nintendo 3DS

Japanese video game giant Nintendo today revealed that its 3DS portable game player will be available in the U.S. on March 27 for $249.99.

The device has two screens, which Nintendo says will allow for three-dimensional visuals without wearing special glasses. Nintendo expects 30 games will be ready for the device by June. Games made for the Nintendo DS can be played on the device with 2-D visuals.

Financial headlines

Wells Fargo: The San Francisco banking giant reported a $3.4 billion profit for its fourth quarter, up 21 percent from a year earlier. Revenue, at $21.5 billion, was down from $22.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009.

The company's profit attributable to common shareholders was $3.2 billion, or 61 cents a share. According to an Associated Press report, that was in line with Wall Street expectations.

Goldman Sachs: The giant Wall Street investment house had a fourth-quarter profit of $2.23 billion after preferred dividends, down 53 percent from a year ago, according to AP. Revenue dropped 10 percent to $8.64 billion.

For all of 2010, Goldman employees earned $15.4 billion in salary and bonuses, down 5 percent from 2009.

Silicon Valley tech stocks

Up: Oracle.

Down: Apple, Google, Intel, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, VMware, eBay, Gilead Sciences, Yahoo.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index: Down 40.49, or 1.5 percent, to 2,725.36.

The blue chip Dow Jones industrial average: Down 12.64, or 0.1 percent, to 11,825.29.

And the widely watched Standard & Poor's 500 index: Down 13.10, or 1 percent, to 1,281.92.

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 Frank Russell at 408-920-5876. Follow him at Twitter.com/mercspike.

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