NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks continue to slide Wednesday morning. Technology companies are taking some of the biggest losses as investors weren’t impressed with Apple’s latest results. Energy companies are falling with the price of oil.
KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average skidded 71 points, or 0.4 percent, to 18,097 as of 10:05 a.m. Eastern time. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 9 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,134. The Nasdaq composite gave up 30 points, or 0.6 percent, to 5,253.
APPLE CORED: Apple sank $4.51, or 3.8 percent, to $113.73. The company’s iPhone sales fell 5 percent from a year ago. Apple gets about two-thirds of its revenue from iPhone sales and some investors are concerned it depends too much on its marquee product. Apple said it expects sales to start growing again in the holiday season after a recent slump. Investors had thought the same: Apple stock has climbed over the last few months to reach new highs for the year.
OIL PRICES: Crude prices were down after the American Petroleum Institute reported a much larger than expected buildup in U.S. inventories. Benchmark U.S. oil fell 95 cents, or 1.9 percent, to $49.01 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the international standard, dropped $1.09, or 2.1 percent, to $49.70 a barrel in London. Among energy stocks, Devon Energy shed 90 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $39.77 and Halliburton lost 84 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $46.94.
FIND THE PULSE: Medical device maker Edwards Lifesciences reported disappointing sales of heart devices and forecast another shortfall in the current quarter. Its stock slid $14.61, or 12.8 percent, to $99.07.
FOOD IN FOCUS: Panera Bread climbed $3.16, or 1.6 percent, to $197.72 after the restaurant and bakery chain raised its profit projections. That came after Panera reported solid results in its latest quarter. Chipotle continued to struggle in its efforts to win back customers after food safety scares that started last year. Its sales fell for the fourth quarter in a row and were worse than analysts expected. The stock lost $28.65, or 7.1 percent, to $377.02.
SNACK ATTACK: Mondelez, the maker of Oreo cookies, Cadbury chocolate and Trident gum, climbed after reporting a bigger profit than analysts expected. The company’s stock picked up $1.05, or 2.5 percent, to $43.81.
COKE BUBBLES UP: The world’s largest beverage maker announced a slightly larger profit and better sales than Wall Street expected. Its stock edged up 20 cents to $42.75.
TECH GAINERS: Akamai Technologies rose $8.57, or 14.5 percent, to $67.64 on a bigger profit and better sales for the cloud services company. Juniper Networks, a computer network equipment maker, gained $2.51, or 10.6 percent, to $26.23 after investors were pleased with projections.
FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS: Southwest Airlines gave a weak revenue forecast for the rest of the year. Ticket prices have been falling for two years and Southwest said prices are still “soft” while its spending grew. The stock lost $4.89, or 11.7 percent, to $37.06.
BONDS: Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.78 percent from 1.76 percent.
CURRENCIES: The dollar inched up to 104.24 yen from 104.22 yen. The euro rose to $1.0927 from $1.0892
OVERSEAS: The FTSE 100 of Britain dropped 1.2 percent while Germany’s DAX fell 0.7 percent. The CAC 40 in France lost 0.3 percent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 edged 0.2 percent higher, but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1 percent and South Korea’s Kospi lost 1.1 percent.
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AP Markets Writer Marley Jay can be reached at http://twitter.com/MarleyJayAP His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/marley-jay
