Encouraging comments from Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) were no help for the stock market on Wednesday, as an unexpected decline in retail sales sent the broader market tumbling.
Intel ended fractionally lower despite an early rally on news of better than expected orders.
Intel also faces a hefty antitrust fine from the European Union, which was good for a small gain in shares of AMD (NYSE: AMD).
But much weaker than expected retail sales weighed on the rest of the market, raising worries that a tentative economic rebound could come undone — and concerns that encouraging signs in the chip sector could be largely inventory restocking without a resurgence in demand.
Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) fell 4% despite better than expected sales, as traders focused on weak pricing and orders.
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) fell 4% for the second straight day. The company announced that CEO Steve Jobs won’t be giving the keynote at Apple’s June 8 World Wide Developers Conference. Jobs is expected to return to the company in late June. There is also speculation that Apple could unveil a new iPhone at the show, although Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster thinks the company may save that announcement for Jobs’ return.
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), VMware (NYSE: VMW), Alcatel Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Motorola (NYSE: MOT), Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) and eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) were other big decliners.
BMC (NYSE: BMC) shares fell 7.5% after the company missed sales estimates.
Frontier (NYSE: FTR) lost 3.7% on news that’s buying land line assets from Verizon (NYSE: VZ), which earlier this week sold wireless assets to AT&T (NYSE: T).
Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) fell 10% ahead of its results due out after the close, even though the company announced a WiMax deal with Cisco.
Seagate (NASDAQ: STX) lost 5% on cost-cutting plans.
After the close, CommVault (NASDAQ: CVLT) fell 17% on its results, while CA (NASDAQ: CA) edged higher after beating earnings estimates.
The Nasdaq tumbled 51 to 1664, the S&P 500 lost 24 to 883, and the Dow plunged 184 to 8284. Volume rose to 7.09 billion shares on the NYSE, and declined to 2.43 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by a 32-5 margin on the NYSE, and 23-4 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 92% on the NYSE, and 95% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 6-54 on the NYSE, and 10-22 on the Nasdaq.