A gloomy sales report from a U.S. tech giant pulled down markets today.
In a letter to investors, Apple CEO Tim Cook reported “lower than anticipated iPhone revenue, primarily in Greater China.”
Cook’s comments sent Apple shares on a 9.9 percent spiral and had investors scrambling for safer options.
Apple’s decline is being looked at as a harbinger of a flagging global economy, and factored into the TSX dropping 134 points.
Canada’s stock exchange slid despite another rise in the price of oil and a bump in Canadian mining stocks.
Oil moved 29 cents higher to $46.83 US a barrel after a Reuters survey revealed that OPEC oil supply fell in December by the largest amount in nearly two years.
Among the TSX’s 11 sectors, tech fell the most, down nearly 3.9 percent. In all, seven of 11 sectors traded lower, including the heavyweight financials sector.
In New York, Apple’s woes cast a shadow over Wall Street as the Dow plunged 660 points.
Apple wasn’t the lone reason for the Dow’s decline.
News of a slowdown of America’s manufacturing sector, ongoing U.S./China trade tensions, and the partial U.S. government shutdown dragged the index deep into negative territory.
It was also a rough day for the tech-heavy Nasdaq, which was off by a whopping three percent, or 202 points, with heavy losses by Intel, Micron, Tesla, and Facebook, to name a few.
After climbing to its highest level in two weeks, the loonie retreated but still edged 3/100ths of a cent higher to $0.7415 US while gold jumped $12.10 to $1,296 an ounce.
