Ouch! Dow sinks 600 points as Apple suffers biggest single-day loss in 6 years

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled more than 660 points as Apple stock dropped nearly 10 percent – the biggest single day decline for the company since 2013 – just one day after it slashed its revenue forecast.

Shortly after spooking Asian and European investors, CEO Tim Cook’s bombshell announcement rocked Wall Street on Thursday. The drop marked the worst start to a year for both the S&P 500 and the Dow since 2000, while for the Nasdaq it was the weakest start since 2005, according to Market Watch. 

The Dow Jones fell nearly 2.8 to 22,686.22 points just days after it completed its worst year in a decade. The S&P 500 index plunged nearly 2.5 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost more than three percent.

The US tech giant itself was hit by Thursday’s sell-off with its stock tanking 9.96 percent. Apple stock, which was trading above $230 per share around three months ago, closed down the trading day at $142.19, its lowest price level since July 2017.

The iPhone maker lost around 18 percent in a year and is down nearly 36 percent since October highs. Thursday’s plunge also pushed Apple market valuation to less than $700 billion and down to fourth place among most valuable publicly traded US companies, just two months after it took the top spot.

In a rare announcement on Wednesday, Apple revealed that it expects a drop of up to $9 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2019. The iPhone maker’s chief blamed the drop in sales on the economic slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy – China – a key emerging market for Apple smartphones.

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