Apple downgrade sparks tech sell-off, sending Alphabet and Microsoft to one-year lows
Shares of large technology companies suffered heavy losses on Thursday, dragging down many other U.S. stocks along with them, after analysts at Bank of America lowered Apple’s stock rating.
Tech stocks have been pushed down all year as investors have rotated out of growth and flocked to more defensive assets to deal with higher interest rates and to get ahead of a possible recession.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose on Tuesday and Wednesday, but the buying came after the worst two weeks since the onset of the Covid pandemic. Now the downward trend is back, with the Nasdaq off 2.8% on Thursday — it’s steepest one-day setback since Sept. 13. The broader S&P 500 fell 2.1%.
Apple shares declined nearly 5% as Bank of America analysts led by Wamsi Mohan changed their rating to neutral from buy, straying from the buy position held by a majority of analysts polled by FactSet.
The analysts pointed to several risks, including a weaker buying cycle associated with the iPhone 14 that Apple released this month. One day earlier, a report said Apple had scrapped its plan to boost iPhone production by 6 million units in the second half of the year.
Apple stock is now worth 20% less than it was at the end of 2021, while the Nasdaq is down 31% over the same period.
https://play.acast.com/s/63368118a204e200141515a8
https://play.acast.com/s/6336822c3c8dea0013c30492
https://play.acast.com/s/6336858a6f68d7001255cf0d
https://play.acast.com/s/633687ac6203c00012adf5d1
https://play.acast.com/s/63368832df4c79001271681e
https://play.acast.com/s/633688d3df4c7900127168e4
https://play.acast.com/s/63368b57df4c790012716cb5
https://play.acast.com/s/63368bc4f131c60012c1b72d
http://allabouturanch.com/photo/albums/fdkezccvsaacifl
https://txt.fyi/-/22272/d58fe2aa/
https://play.acast.com/s/63368c466f68d7001255d847
https://vk.com/@cinemahd21-table-for-six-hd
https://vk.com/@dahlanmurkas-hd-table-for-six-2022
https://paste.artemix.org/-/Sw4UJr
https://dotnetfiddle.net/xbzVZU
https://paste.toolforge.org/view/7be036e2
http://phillipsservices.net/UserProfile/tabid/43/userId/171285/Default.aspx
https://backlinktool.io/p/Kd8Pq4rAPYc8ziut9goM.html
https://www.pastery.net/mmsqyp/
https://tech.io/snippet/CMkt6DJ
https://telegra.ph/hdhdh-09-30-2
http://pastebin.falz.net/2425205
https://pastelink.net/x3mt8bo8
https://peacepink.ning.com/photo/fdkezccvsaacifl
https://ide.geeksforgeeks.org/e09a75d2-c4ad-45c2-897d-a27350608e04
http://healingxchange.ning.com/photo/albums/fdkezccvsaacifl
https://paste.firnsy.com/paste/BvFBKaMWTgm
https://paste.cutelyst.org/wIul_EXgS
http://zacriley.ning.com/photo/albums/fdkezccvsaacifl
https://stockhouse.com/blogs/gdfhdfh
https://www.onfeetnation.com/photo/albums/dhjkghfkfg
https://caribbeanfever.com/photo/albums/fdkezccvsaacifl
https://paste.feed-the-beast.com/view/944cafcc
https://jsfiddle.net/p46e9nL7/
https://beterhbo.ning.com/photo/albums/fdkezccvsaacifl
https://muckrack.com/hfjfgj-fkghkghk/bio
Of the technology companies with the largest market valuations, Microsoft took the lightest blow. It ended Thursday’s trading session down about 1.5%, which was still a 52-week low. Google parent Alphabet also reached a 52-week low, dropping 2.6%. Shares of Facebook parent Meta Platforms slid 3.7%, Amazon declined 2.7% and Tesla was off 6.8%.
Google is shuttering its digital gaming service Stadia, the latest ambitious project to get cut as the company looks to shed costs.
The gaming service, which launched in 2019 and runs on phones and the Chrome browser, “hasn’t gained the traction with users that we expected,” wrote Phil Harrison, a Google vice president, in a blog post Thursday. “We’ve made the difficult decision to begin winding down our Stadia streaming service,” he wrote.
For Google, Stadia represented an opportunity to put its cloud streaming technology to work and enable immersive gameplay “at massive scale,” according to Harrison. Stadia servers will be turned off on Jan. 18, the Stadia FAQ page says. The company hoped Stadia would compete with other gaming services like Sony’s PlayStation Plus cloud streaming, Amazon’s Luna and Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming
The shuttering of Stadia is the latest move by CEO Sundar Pichai to cut costs after saying he wants to make the company 20% more efficient. Alphabet’s stock price is down 34% this year and in July the company reported disappointing revenue and profit numbers. Pichai’s efficiency efforts, he said, could include product and head count cuts as the company reckons with a slew of economic challenges and slowing growth.
Google recently canceled the next generation of its Pixelbook laptop and cut funding to its Area 120 in-house incubator.
Stadia’s future has been uncertain for a while. Last year, the company said it was disbanding the Stadia Games and Entertainment team, which developed its own original games for the service. Speculation swirled about the potential for a broader cut to the service.
Google said it will be refunding all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store and all game and add-on content purchases at the Stadia store. The company said it expects to complete the majority of refunds by mid-January. Players will continue to have access to their games library and can play through Jan. 18.
Google said it will continue supporting gaming in other areas and will help developers build and distribute gaming apps on Google Play and Google Play Games. Harrison also indicated the technology used for Stadia won’t go to waste.
“We see clear opportunities to apply this technology across other parts of Google like YouTube, Google Play, and our Augmented Reality (AR) efforts — as well as make it available to our industry partners, which aligns with where we see the future of gaming headed,” he wrote.