Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) shares tumbled 5.7% Wednesday after a couple of analysts issued cautious comments on the company, and the rest of the market didn’t fare much better.
UBS analyst Nikos Theodosopoulos said mid-quarter checks on Cisco suggest that business continues to slow in the U.S. and Europe, and Mark Sue of RBC Capital Markets also lowered his price target on Cisco, which won’t report results until August 5.
The rest of the market got clobbered by worries that financial companies may have to raise even more money to cover write-downs, as the S&P joined the Dow and Nasdaq in bear market territory, off more than 20% since last fall. Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE), Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM), Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) and Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH) were among the names suffering steep declines.
Chip stocks were hard hit, with Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) losing 5% each, and Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: SUNW) was another 5% loser. Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) fell 5.8% on a Goldman Sachs downgrade.
Of the 25 most heavily traded Nasdaq stocks, only Sirius Satellite (NASDAQ: SIRI) ended the day unchanged; the rest finished lower.
QLogic (NASDAQ: QLGC) was a rare winner, rising 8.7% after the company raised financial guidance, and VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) tacked on 2.8% on positive analyst comments.
Openwave (NASDAQ: OPWV) shot higher after regaining Nasdaq compliance.
The Nasdaq lost 59 to 2234, the S&P fell 29 to 1244, and the Dow tumbled 235 to 11,147. Volume declined to 5.15 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.31 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by a 22-11 margin on the NYSE, and 20-8 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 82% on the NYSE, and 84% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 23-222 on the NYSE, and 40-227 on the Nasdaq.