Better than expected quarterly results from AMD (NYSE: AMD) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) couldn’t stop a steep stock sell-off on Friday, as stocks finished their worst week since the end of the 2007-2009 bear market.
AMD plunged 12 percent despite reporting record sales, while Google shares were off 5.7 percent despite results that topped forecasts.
A Citigroup downgrade of the chip equipment sector sent the entire semiconductor sector lower by more than 5 percent. Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) fell 7 percent.
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), Micron (NYSE: MU), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), HP (NYSE: HPQ), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), EMC (NYSE: EMC) and Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) were among the names faring worse than the Nasdaq’s 2.7 percent decline.
Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) shares were also hit despite a better than expected earnings report, off by 10 percent.
Tighter lending in China, the threat of new banking regulations in the U.S., fears that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke won’t be reappointed and earnings expectations that were too high have all been cited as reasons for the stock market’s three-day slide.
Apple, Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC), Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), VMware (NYSE: VMW), EMC, Tellabs (NASDAQ: TLAB), Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM), Sun (NASDAQ: JAVA), Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Amazon, Juniper (NASDAQ: JNPR) and Microsoft are on a very long list of companies reporting quarterly earnings next week.
The Nasdaq plunged 60 to 2205, the S&P 500 fell 24 to 1091, and the Dow tumbled 216 to 10,172. Volume declined to 6.21 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.84 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by a 31-7 margin on the NYSE, and 19-7 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 88 percent on the NYSE, and 83 percent on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 115-47 on the NYSE, and 45-20 on the Nasdaq.
