New York – Wall Street stumbled lower Monday as growing concerns over technology companies led jittery investors to pull money out of the market ahead of this week’s earnings reports.
The market has been vulnerable to erratic trading lately, with investors cautious about the direction of the economy and companies’ results. The tech sector so far has been knocked down the most, after Apple Inc.’s and Intel Corp.’s outlooks last week fell below Wall Street’s expectations.
With industry leaders such as Qualcomm Inc. and Microsoft Corp. releasing their financial results this week, many investors are bracing for disappointment.
“The market is nervous,” said Joe Ranieri, managing director of equity trading at Canaccord Adams. “We’ve had a few good quarters in a row in tech land. The problem with having good quarters is it gets harder and harder to impress.”
Blue-chip stocks were also dragged down by a Wachovia analyst’s downgrade of Boeing Co.; the analyst cited possible aircraft order delays from the jetmaker.
Overall, earnings reports and economic data this year have signaled growth that’s cooling but not so quickly that it is squeezing corporate profits. This would normally be good news for the stock market, but investors have been retreating – wisely, many market watchers say – on signs they may have gotten ahead of themselves late last year, when the Dow Jones industrials began racing into record territory.
The Dow fell 88.37, or 0.70 percent, to 12,477.16 – the biggest one-day drop since Nov. 27, when the index fell 158 points. Earlier in Monday’s session, the Dow declined 114 points.
Broader stock indicators also dropped. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 7.55, or 0.53 percent, to 1,422.95, and the Nasdaq composite index lost 20.24, or 0.83 percent, closing at 2,431.07.
Bond prices rose, though investors’ hopes for an interest- rate cut have dwindled in response to upbeat economic data.
