Weak earnings in an important tech bellwether provided the impetus for a major sell-off in the sector. That, combined with disappointing jobs and home sales reports and continued concerns about Cyprus, brought Wednesday’s rally to a thudding end.
By the end of the day the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 0.97% to close at 3,222.60, while the S&P 500 fell 0.83% to 1,545.80 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average sagged 0.62% to end at 14,421.91.
Shares of enterprise software developer Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) dove almost 10% on trading of over 100 million shares after the company announced lower top- and bottom-line results for the most recent quarter.
The news bled all over technology stocks in the Dow, as Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO, -3.83%) and IBM (NYSE:IBM, -1.3%) turned in ugly performances. Even Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) took a tumble, dropping over 2% despite announcing a 10% increase in its dividend.
Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) managed to avoid the tech-sector carnage, rising over 3% after announcing it bought Jybe, a company that offers recommendations based on social networking data, and is in talks to buy a stake in video sharing site Dailymotion.
Despite rumors that the Pentagon will pull support for users of thousands of its devices, shares of Blackberry (NASDAQ:BBRY) continued to rise. The company announced it has more than 100,000 BB10 apps available for users.
KB Home (NYSE:KBH) shares moved ahead over 2% after the company reported sales surged 59% in the first quarter, as more homes were delivered and prices increased.
Finally, Lululemon (NASDAQ:LULU) rebounded slightly from its yoga-pants problem after reporting earnings and sales managed to climb past estimates, gaining 1%.
Three Up
- Supervalu (NYSE:SVU): Up 11.69% (49 cents) to $4.68
- 3D Systems (NYSE:DDD): Up 3.91% ($1.15) to $30.57
- Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST): Up 3.35% ($1.88) to $58.05
Three Down
- Guess (NYSE:GES): Down 7.20% ($1.94) to $25.01
- Airgas (NYSE:ARG): Down 5.22% ($5.39) to $97.96
- Radioshack (NYSE:RSH): Down 4.76% (18 cents) to $3.60
Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he is long YHOO.
