Palm, Brocade Plunge as Stocks Fall

A steep, unexpected decline in consumer confidence sent stocks tumbling on Tuesday, with Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) and Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) leading the tech sector lower.

Brocade plunged 23 percent on weak networking sales. More than 180 million shares changed hands, nine times average volume in the stock.

Palm lost 10 percent on reports of soft smartphone sales at Verizon (NYSE: VZ) from analysts at Macquarie Research and Stifel Nicolaus.

The Nasdaq fell 1.3 percent on signs that high unemployment is hurting consumer confidence, which raised fears of a “double dip” recession.

Micron (NYSE: MU) and Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) lost more than 3 percent each.

Orbitz (NYSE: OWW) tumbled 15 percent after reporting a loss and forecasting a sales decline, while CommScope (NYSE: CTV) shed 12 percent on its results.

Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) slipped 1 percent ahead of its quarterly results due out late Wednesday.