Morning Report 4 Jan 19: US stocks retreat in the face of a wave of poor news

 US sharemarkets fell on Thursday on weak factory data and Apple's profit warning. The iPhone maker's shares dropped 9.5% after the company slashed holiday-quarter revenue forecast for its flagship device, citing slowing sales in China. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index slumped by 5.5% and Intel's shares were down 4.7%. Trade sensitive shares' Caterpillar (-3.6%) and Boeing (-3.9%) both fell. But shares of Celgene surged 21.7% after Bristol-Myers Squibb (-14.2%) offered to buy the drugmaker for about US$74 billion in cash and stock. An hour before the close of trade, the Dow Jones is down by near 600 points or 2.6%. The S&P500 index fell by near 2.2% and the Nasdaq index was down by near 180 points or 2.7%.  

 

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