An analyst’s downgrade of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and worries about Oracle’s (NASDAQ: ORCL) upcoming earnings report weighed on the tech sector on Monday.
Apple lost 3.6% on a Goldman Sachs downgrade on the company’s exposure to slowing consumer markets, and Oracle slipped 2.3% after Credit Suisse and Oppenheimer lowered estimates on the company ahead of its earnings report Thursday night.
Oracle’s earnings won’t be the only big news for investors this week. Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) and Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) will report their quarterly results on Tuesday, Micron (NYSE: MU) on Wednesday, and Palm (NASDAQ: PALM), Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) and Accenture (NYSE: ACN) will join Oracle on Thursday.
And the stock market will also have to contend with a Federal Reserve decision on interest rates and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) earnings on Tuesday and Morgan Stanley’s (NYSE: MS) earnings report on Wednesday.
Also weighing on the market Monday were worries about an alleged $50 billion fraud by Wall Street veteran Bernard Madoff, as the list of investors facing potential losses continues to grow.
Atmel (NASDAQ: ATML) lost 6% on a warning and layoffs.
Tellabs (NASDAQ: TLAB) added 3% on a Barclays upgrade, while AT&T (NYSE: T) lost 3.7% on a Goldman Sachs downgrade.
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) fell 4.7% on worries about consumer holiday spending.
The Nasdaq lost 32 to 1508, the S&P fell 11 to 868, and the Dow slumped 65 to 8564. Volume declined to 5.02 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.69 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by a 27-10 margin on the NYSE, and 21-7 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 69% on the NYSE, and 83% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 10-122 on the NYSE, and 5-100 on the Nasdaq.
