Most of today's action was based on yesterday afternoon's tech earnings, an analyst call on banks, and a billionaire getting out of a car stock.
The final index numbers looked like this:
DJIA: 9,028.24 down 2.56%
Nasdaq: 1,696.68 down 4.14%
S&P 500 954.85 down 3.10%
Tech took damage because of poor numbers from Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) and Sun (NASDAQ: JAVA). There was not a great deal of surprise about Sun because it disappoints almost every quarter. It will lose money again for the period ending in September. The stock fell over 16% to a new 52-week low at $4.69. In the case of Texas Instruments, its chips are used in such a broad spectrum of devices that it signaled a broad slowdown in consumer electronics and handsets.
Goldman Sachs repeated that Citigroup (NYSE: C) is a "sell." The research arm of the investment house said the big bank would not make money until late next year because of credit market problems. That did not do much good for the banking sector and Citi was off 6%
To remind Wall Street how bad the car sectors is, Kirk Kerkorian began to sell his position in Ford (NYSE: F). The shares he disclosed dumping so far were at a price almost two-thirds below where he bought them.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
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