[1]Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL[2]) continued its spectacular crash to earth on Wednesday, dropping 5.5% — and at one point falling below $400 per share — to touch a 52-week low.
Apple will report earnings next Tuesday but the drop, along with disappointing news in the banking sector, unnerved the markets, as Tuesday’s rally gave way to a broad sell-off throughout the day.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped took it on the chin, losing 1.84% to close at 3,204.67, while the S&P 500 fell 1.43% to end at 1,552.01. The Dow, which saw all but four of its components lose ground, fell 0.94% to end at 14,618.59.
Investors deserted Apple after an earnings warning its chip supplier Cirrus Logic (NASDAQ:CRUS[3]) triggered concerns over first-quarter revenue weakness on slowing iPhone demand. Cirrus fell almost 16% on the day, while chip-makers Analog Devices (NYSE:ADI[4]) and Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN[5]) both fell over 4% on the news.
Technology Dow components Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ[6], -2.57%), and Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO[7],-2.50%) also fell on the day, while Google (NASDAQ:GOOG[8]) shed just under 2%.
In the banking sector, Bank of America (NYSE:BAC[9]) led off the day by announcing it missed first-quarter earnings[10] estimates by around 2 cents per share despite record revenues. The Dow component was hammered, dropping nearly 5% on the day. Sectormates JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM, -3.51%), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS, -2.43%), Citigroup (NYSE:C, -1.97%), and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC, -1.35%) fell as well.
Toy maker Mattel (NYSE:MAT[11]) managed to buck the trend, as first quarter net profit quadrupled and the stock gained gained just under 2% on the news.
A big day of earnings releases on Thursday includes notables Google — InvestorPlace‘s Stock of the Week[12] – Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS[13]), Verizon (NYSE:VZ[14]), IBM (NYSE:IBM[15]) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT[16]).
Three Up
- Nokia (NYSE:NOK[17]): Up 4.07% (14 cents) to $3.58
- Dollar General (NYSE:DG[18]): Up 2.83% ($1.43) to $51.90
- Qihoo (NASDAQ:QIHU[19]): Up 2.23% (68 cents) to $31.12
Three Down
- Textron (NYSE:TXT[20]): Down 13.42% ($3.94) to $25.41
- Goodrich Petroleum (NYSE:GDP[21]): Down 8.33% ($1.21) to $13.31
- Silver Wheaton Corp. (NYSE:SLW[22]): Down 6.97% ($1.65) to $22.03
Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing he is long AAPL, MSFT, YHOO, and VZ.