Technology shares fell sharply yesterday deepening February's market rout and pushing the Nasdaq composite index to a seven week low, as unease about earnings and the US economy rattled investors.
Bulls were confined to narrow groups, most notably retailers, which traded higher after Wal-Mart Stores and Home Depot Inc. reported earnings with no negative surprises and issued encouraging words about their near-term prospects.
The Nasdaq index fell 106.82 points to end at 2,318.56 while the Dow Jones Industrial average fell 68.94 points to 10,730.88. The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 lost 22.71 points at 1,278.82.
"Earnings have come in weak and it seems like investors are losing confidence that corporate America is going to pull us out of this slowdown. They are focusing more on the consumer doing it now," said John Forelli, senior vice president at Independence Investment Associates which oversees $25 billion.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)