Comments from Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) that the DRAM market is slowing sent chip stocks skidding on Tuesday, as the rest of the market plunged on fears of a global economic slowdown.
Micron shares lost 13.5 percent on the news, while AMD (NYSE: AMD) and SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) lost 7 percent each and Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) fell 5.6 percent. The Nasdaq shed 3.9 percent on the day.
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) tumbled 7.8 percent a day after Susquehanna downgraded the online retailing giant on e-book competition concerns.
Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM), Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU), eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) also suffered steep declines.
Flextronics (NASDAQ: FLEX) fell 10.5 percent on a Ticonderoga downgrade.
Investors worried about the shaky economy will likely be on edge until Friday, when a government report is expected to show that the labor market turned negative again last month, with a loss of 100,000 jobs expected.