General market comment
Tech Sector Is Nearing Correction Territory as Coronavirus Takes a Toll -- Barrons.com
DOW JONES & COMPANY, INC. 4:00 PM ET 2/25/2020
Symbol Last Price Change |
| MSFT | 168.07 | -2.82 (-1.65%) | | AAPL | 288.08 | -10.1 (-3.39%) | | MA | 303.17 | -21.5 (-6.62%) | | QUOTES AS OF 04:00:00 PM ET 02/25/2020 |
Battered by fears of the impact of coronavirus, technology shares are rapidly approaching a decline of 10% -- the classic definition of a stock-market correction. And the slide has come in a hurry.
In four trading days, technology shares as measured by the S&P 500 Information Technology Sector index have declined 9.8%. Over the same span, the Nasdaq Composite, which has a heavy weighting of technology shares, is down about 8.8%, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor index is down 10.6%.
Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple(AAPL) together account for about 40% of the total S&P IT Sector index. Since Feb. 19, Microsoft(MSFT) shares are down 9.4%, while Apple(AAPL) is off 10.4%.
Also hurting the index are declines by credit-card issuers Visa (V) and Mastercard(MA) , which account for 5% and 4.5% of the index, respectively. Over the four-day market slide, Visa is off 11%, and Mastercard(MA) is down 13%.
Mastercard (MA) on Monday said it now expects first-quarter revenue growth of 9%-10%, 2 or 3 percentage points below its original expectations. "Cross-border travel, and to a lesser extent cross-border e-commerce growth, is being impacted by the coronavirus," the company said.
Last week, Apple(AAPL) warned investors that it would fall short of its original revenue guidance for the March quarter, given the impact of the coronavirus issue both on its China-based component suppliers and contract manufacturers, and on consumer demand in China.
Note that the S&P IT index doesn't include Alphabet (GOOGL), Facebook (FB), or Amazon.com (AMZN). Over the four days, Alphabet is off 9.3%, Facebook has fallen 9.6%, and Amazon has lost 9.2%.
Write to Eric J. Savitz at eric.savitz@barrons.com |
