Dow tanks 600 points, tech gets rocked

pulse

November 12, 2018 5:16 PM

Stocks were lower for a third straight day Monday, with technology hit hard amid worries of slowing iPhone demand.

Technology was pressured amid worries of slowing iPhone demand.
Oil gained as Saudi Arabia signaled it would cut production in December, but rolled over after President Donald Trump tweeted his displeasure.

Stocks fell for a third straight day Monday, with technology leading the way lower amid worries about waning iPhone demand.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.8%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was lower by 2.3%, or 602 points. The S&P 500 shed 2%.

Apple sank 4.7% Monday after the facial-recognition supplier Lumentum cut its outlook, prompting worries of slowing demand for the iPhone.

Chipmakers were hit especially hard, with AMD shedding 8.6% while Nvidia and Intel lost 7.1% and 2.5%.

Elsewhere, tobacco stocks were pressured after The Wall Street Journal reported late Friday that the US Food and Drug Administration was considering a ban on menthol cigarettes. British American Tobacco slumped as much as 9.9% in London, and Altria was down 3% in New York.

And General Electric plunged to a post-financial-crisis low of $7.72 a share after CEO Larry Culp appeared on CNBC and said he was looking at selling assets to reduce leverage.

On the earnings front, the marijuana producer Aurora Cannabis announced a big jump in revenue and profit, but the stock slid 3.4%.

And in deal news, the German database giant SAP announced it would buy the experience-management startup Qualtrics for $8 billion. That news came just days before Qualtrics was expected to go public at a valuation of more than $5 billion. Meanwhile, the private-equity firm Veritas Capital and the hedge fund Elliott Management reached an all-cash deal to purchase the US healthcare software maker Athenahealth for about $5.7 billion, a 12% premium to where shares closed Friday.

Elsewhere, the Saudi energy minister, Khalid al-Falih, told reporters the kingdom was ready to cut oil production by 500,000 barrels a day in December. Both West Texas Intermediate and Brent Crude oil rallied sharply before a tweet from President Donald Trump sent prices lower by more than 1%.

The US Treasury market was closed in observance of Veterans Day.

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