European stocks fell at the open Wednesday after Wall Street losses and disappointing results from United States technology giants Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft. The Nasdaq composite declined 36.4 points, about 0.7 percent, to… The Standard & Poor’s 500 index slipped six points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,112.
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In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Wednesday.
After the closing bell Tuesday – a wave of tech earnings led by Apple, which beat forecasts. iPhone sales surged 35 percent helping the company report a 32 percent jump in revenue – but that was disappointing to some who fear slowing growth for the maturing category.
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Apple said Mac sales in the quarter increased 9% to 4.80 million but sales in iPad business tumbled 18% to 10.9 million units.
THE QUOTE: As the biggest publicly traded company in the world, Apple has a big impact on the market. Apple is among the companies with the highest stock prices in the Dow, which gives it major sway over the price-weighted blue-chip index.
In sum, while Apple surpassed Microsoft by a huge margin in terms of revenue and earnings growth, the market is treating shares of the former more harshly.
The stock was the biggest drag on all three major indexes. Gold futures declined 1.5% to $1087.50 an ounce.
“What’s really encouraging…is the tremendous pullback in commodities prices”, said Bill Hench, a portfolio manager at Royce Funds. “Copper and oil remain under significant pressure, reflecting worries about the outlook for industrial demand as well as the potential for strength in the US dollar”, said Michael McCarthy, chief strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney. Last year, the company touted $244.60 million in revenue and 8 cents in earnings per share.
“We are getting a little bit of indigestion in the market over the past two sessions from tech earnings”, said David Schiegoleit, managing director of investments at the Private Client Reserve of US Bank in Los Angeles. One of the biggest decliners in Europe was a company that designs basic chip technology that is found in more than 95% of all smartphones, including the iPhone. Heating oil fell 0.6 cents to close at $1.672 a gallon.
Chipotle also rallied the most in a year, to its highest since February 3.
Elsewhere in the sector, Yahoo revealed it had swung to a loss of $US22 million in the second quarter, but revenues grew as the internet pioneer refocused its efforts on mobile and other growing sectors. Results topped expectations, pushing shares up 0.2%.
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MONSTER QUARTER: Coca-Cola shares rose in early trading after the beverage maker reported a higher profit in the second quarter as it raised prices, cut costs and benefited from a gain related to its purchase of a stake in energy drink maker Monster Beverage. If Apple reports earnings or sales that are above, or “beat”, expectations, AAPL shares may rise, as Google shares did this past Thursday and Friday.
