Stocks ended solidly lower after minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting nipped hopes for more quantitative easing and amid uncertainty over Greece. A sharp turn lower for Apple also weighed on the market. Meanwhile, industrial production climbed in January, with output up 0.7%; home builders rose more than expected in February to the highest level since May 2007. Tech stocks closed mostly in the red led by Apple, which slid 2.3% on reports that the co. had asked Amazon.com to remove the iPad from the online retailer’s site in China following a trademark dispute with a Chinese contract manufacturer over the use of the term “iPad.” On the upside, Juniper rose 7% after AT&T said it’s planning to support the building or upgrading of thousands of its cell-phone sites around the United States to improve its network. Zynga fell more than 17% in the wake of the company’s mixed fiscal fourth-quarter report. NetApp Inc. jumped 8.6% in the evening trade after the higher end of the data storage-technology company’s quarterly forecasts came in above market expectations, while Nvidia logged a 5.1% decline, dogged by soft earnings outlook. Implied volatility surged to the 20 level on huge trading volumes.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Closed lower on Apple, Greece and Fed
Stocks ended solidly lower after minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting nipped hopes for more quantitative easing and amid uncertainty over Greece. A sharp turn lower for Apple also weighed on the market. Meanwhile, industrial production climbed in January, with output up 0.7%; home builders rose more than expected in February to the highest level since May 2007. Tech stocks closed mostly in the red led by Apple, which slid 2.3% on reports that the co. had asked Amazon.com to remove the iPad from the online retailer’s site in China following a trademark dispute with a Chinese contract manufacturer over the use of the term “iPad.” On the upside, Juniper rose 7% after AT&T said it’s planning to support the building or upgrading of thousands of its cell-phone sites around the United States to improve its network. Zynga fell more than 17% in the wake of the company’s mixed fiscal fourth-quarter report. NetApp Inc. jumped 8.6% in the evening trade after the higher end of the data storage-technology company’s quarterly forecasts came in above market expectations, while Nvidia logged a 5.1% decline, dogged by soft earnings outlook. Implied volatility surged to the 20 level on huge trading volumes.
