Apple, Intel among tech leaders caught in S&P 500 swoon
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Leading tech stocks such as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) led a sectorwide decline, Friday, as the benchmark S&P 500 (SP500) erased memories of the all-time high it reached earlier this year.
In mid-afternoon trading, the S&P 500 (SP500) had fallen almost 2%, to as low as 3,827.22--or more than 20% less than the all-time intraday high of 4,818.62 that the index hit on Jan. 4.
The day's declines signaled that fears about an economic recession are only rising along with inflation that has sent prices rising as levels not seen in decades.
Bellwether tech stocks reflected investors' sentiment about the economy. Apple (AAPL) fell more than 2%, to a new year-to-date low of $133.60 a share that was also the stock's lowest point since June 2021. And in another milestone for what until recently was the world's most-valuable company, Apple's (AAPL) market cap of about $2.2 trillion has fallen more than $800 billion since January, when it became the world's first trillion-dollar company.
Among other tech leaders, Intel (INTC) shares fell 3.5%, to a 52-week-low of $40.52; Microsoft (MSFT) gave up 2%, to an intra-day low of $247.95; Facebook parent Meta Platforms (FB) saw its shares dip by 1%; and Google parent company Alphabet (GOOG) was down by almost 4%.
Nvidia (NVDA), which reports quarterly results on May 26, was off by 7.5%, at $158.61 a share.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) shares dropped by 9.5%, and Pure Storage (PSTG) was down by more than 11% after Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan cut his ratings on both companies to neutral from buy. Mohan also took down his price target on both companies' shares due to numerous questions surrounding the outlook for the storage-technology market.
One of Friday's few notable gainers was Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW), which climbed more than 6% after the storage software and technology company on Thursday gave an upbeat quarterly report and outlook.