“Technology stocks led a broad market retreat Wednesday, with major sector leaders such as International Business Machines Corp. and Apple Inc. joining the slump spurred by reported comments from a European Union official about the state of Japan’s nuclear disaster,” Benjamin Pimentel and Rex Crum report for MarketWatch.
“The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP 2,617, -50.51, -1.89%) fell 1.9% to close at 2,617, losing its gains for 2011. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA 11,613, -242.12, -2.04%) lost 242 points to close at 11,613,” Pimentel and Crum report. “Other tech-related indexes in the red included the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH 643.92, -15.20, -2.31%) , which lost 2.3%, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX 412.44, -9.35, -2.22%) , which was down 2.2%.”
Pimentel and Crum report, “Apple Inc. (AAPL 329.01, -1.00, -0.30%) shares slid 4.5% to close at $330.01 after JMP Securities analyst Alex Gauna downgraded the stock to market perform from market outperform. Gauna said an Apple manufacturing partner in Asia was showing sales-growth deceleration even before the devastating Japan quake. Read more about Apple’s rare downgrade. On Tuesday, Apple announced it was delaying the launch of its iPad 2 tablet in Japan.”
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