Tech stocks sank Wednesday as Intel Corp. and Yahoo Inc. posted low results and Apple Inc. shares fell below $400 for the first time since December 2011.
Apple, trading as AAPL, was a leading stock to decline in the tech market, which has been a lackluster sector in the market. The stock is hovering around $18.48, or 4.3 percent, at $407.76. The shares hit $403.67 earlier, the lowest level since December 2011.
The decline in Apple stock could be tied to Cirrus Logic, a company that makes audio chips for Apple. Cirrus had earlier warned their fourth-quarter earnings would be lower than expected. Apple is one of the largest customers of Cirrus.
The stock slump may mean that Apple will delay launch of any new tablet or phone products. Previously, Apple released a new product in March or April to boost revenue.
The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP -1.70 percent fell 2 percent to 3,196 while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index SOX -3.46 percent slid 3.3 percent and the Morgan Stanley High-Tech Index MSH -1.48 percent dropped 2 percent.
Analysts blamed the drop in value of tech stocks to lack of performance by big names like Yahoo and Intel. Intel INTC -0.05 percent shares fell a fraction to $21.65 and much of it may have to do with a strong decline in PC sales.
Yahoo stock went down 2 percent despite the major search engine reporting a profit in its first-quarter earnings. According to its first-quarter fiscal report, Yahoo raked in $390.9 million in profit, up 36 percent.
The past 10 years have seen U.S. consumer desktop PC sales cut nearly in half, according to technology researcher Gartner Inc. Laptop PC sales have nearly doubled during the same time, showing consumers are shifting to more mobile use. Worldwide, tablet sales are outpacing those of both laptop and desktop PCs, according to technology researcher Canalys.
