The Wall Street Journal chimed in, "Investors are worried about continued growth in corporate profits if the U.S. economy cools down. Bonds edged higher and the dollar was mixed."
Even in the latest quarterly results period where earnings are generally better than expected on the surface, with closer inspection many of the results announced have quality issues involving growth rates for revenues and/or profit margins.
Apple traded flat to close at 50 1/16, but spent most of the day higher, with volume of 3.6 million shares traded.
The forecast slowdown for the PC sector will act as moderating force on AAPLis price perhaps through out the remainder of this quarter. See Steve Jobis Q&A session excerpts in this weekis Apple Trader column for some insight into Appleis hardware strategy going forward.
The Nasdaq fell 41 points (-1.04%) to closed at 3987 on volume of 1.7 billion shares. The index came back in the afternoon from a morning low of 3907. The Nasdaqis 200-day moving average, hovering around 3867, is considered a critical support level by many. Some technical analysts believe the Nasdaq will bounce off this level in the short term for a ride back up to 4200.
Others have a gut feeling that there are just too many investors with huge paper profits for the technology stocks to move higher. Akamai is under pressure because the stock lock-up period for the companyis original pre-IPO investors is coming to an end. An analogous situation may exist for the entire market as investors with large paper gains move into the lower capital gains tax bracket for stock held longer than 12 months.
The Dow fell 183 points (-1.71%) to close at 10516 on volume of 1.1 billion shares. Rebalancing of the Dow Jones Industrial Average with the S&P 500 is to blame for the much of the Dowis decline today.
The S&P 500 dropped 22 points (-1.50%) to close at 1452.
In Apple related businesses: Akamai slid 5/16, after losing more than $25 per share in the last five days to 84 11/16. Adobe fell 2 15/16 to 123 15/16. Earthlink fell 5/16 to 14 11/16. Motorola lost 3/8 to 36 7/8. IBM shed 2 1/8 to 109 7/8.
Appleis competitors: Hewlett Packard lost 5 3/8 to 110 dollars. Gateway fell 1 5/8 to close at 58 3/4. Compaq gained 1 1/16 to 29 1/8 after posting a Q2 profit. Intel fell 1 7/8 to 139 dollars.
Shares of Microsoft fell 1 3/16 to 67 13/16 as the company is lawyers asked "the Supreme Court to let a lower tribunal hear the companyis appeal of antitrust violations first, a strategy aimed at avoiding a verdict to split the software giant.." Microsoft also claims that Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson was biased against the company from the start of the antitrust trial which they recently lost.
In economic news: The Employment Cost Index data to be announced for the second quarter of 2000 tomorrow morning is critical for any bounce in the markets to materialize. Then on Friday watch for the Gross Domestic Product.
For full quotes on all the companies mentioned in this article, we have assembled this set of quotes at Yahoo! for your reference. For other stories regarding Appleis stock activity, visit our Apple Stock Watch Special Report.