“Shares of Apple Inc slid more than 4 percent on Wednesday to a five-month low as investors grew more uncertain about its ability to fend off unprecedented competition and untangle a snarled iPhone 5 supply chain,” Poornima Gupta reports for Reuters. “Apple’s slide was steeper than the S&P 500′s drop of about 2 percent the day after the U.S. election, putting the world’s most valuable technology company into bearish territory.”

“Apple, long a mainstay of many fund portfolios, has lost 20 percent — $130 billion of its market value — since hitting a record high in September. A 20 percent slump signals a bear market in a stock to Wall Street,” Gupta reports. “Fund managers cited fundamental concerns about its supply chain and intensifying competition from resurgent rivals such as Samsung Electronics and Amazon.com Inc, as well as profit-taking after the elections.”

Gupta reports, “Apple’s has maintained a torrid pace of growth in recent years thanks to a run of successful iPhones and iPads. But many investors question whether it can keep innovating and keep ahead of ever-more aggressive competition under new management, installed after the death of its chief inspiration Steve Jobs… Chairman Terry Gou of Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group, Apple’s main contract manufacturer, said on Wednesday the company was ‘falling short of meeting the huge demand’ for the phone.”

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