“U.S. stocks dropped 1 percent in a broad decline on Wednesday, with materials and energy shares leading the way lower as commodity prices dropped, while a selloff in Apple shares pressured the Nasdaq,” Ryan Vlastelica reports for Reuters. “Apple Inc dropped 5.8 percent to $401.31, the stock’s worst daily decline since Jan. 24 after chipmaker Cirrus Logic gave a disappointing revenue outlook that raised concerns about weakening demand for Apple products. All but two of the S&P 500’s 10 major sectors dropped more than 1 percent while about four-fifths of stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq were lower.”
Vlastelica reports, “The Dow Jones industrial average was down 174.93 points, or 1.19 percent, at 14,581.85. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was down 28.51 points, or 1.81 percent, at 1,546.06. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 72.28 points, or 2.21 percent, at 3,192.35. The S&P information technology sector fell 2.6 percent. In addition to Apple Inc, which neared breaking below $400 per share for the first time since December 2011, Texas Instruments shed 4.6 percent to $34.10.”
“Adding another element of uncertainty to the market, the U.S. Secret Service said that a letter addressed to President Barack Obama containing a suspicious substance was received at a White House mail screening facility on Tuesday. The letter came on the heels of the bombing on Monday in Boston,” Vlastelica reports. “‘The ongoing sequence of these terrorist incidents… doesn’t create an environment for good investor psychology,’ said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama, who speculated that investors could move into government bonds from stocks if such events proliferated.”
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