A surprising earnings miss from GE and the lowest consumer confidence reading in 26 years renewed recession fears on Friday and sent stocks plunging.
A host of technology stocks got hit on the news that credit market turmoil had hit GE’s financial services business, which led to the company’s biggest earnings and sales shortfall in memory.
Some of the Nasdaq’s biggest names will report their first-quarter results next week, including Intel, IBM, eBay, AMD and Nokia.
Stocks with losses of 2.5% or more included Google, Cisco, Microsoft, Intel, Apple, Oracle, Applied Materials, Research in Motion, AMD and Amazon.
After leading the tech sector higher Thursday, chip stocks led the way lower, with Nvidia and AMAT among the sector’s 5% losers.
Intervoice tumbled 15% after missing Wall Street estimates.
The Nasdaq lost 61 to 2290, the S&P fell 27 to 1332, and the Dow plunged 256 to 12,325. Volume rose to 3.69 billion shares on the NYSE, and declined to 1.92 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by a 25-7 margin on the NYSE, and 22-6 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 90% on the NYSE, and 86% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 24-57 on the NYSE, and 32-144 on the Nasdaq.