Marking a third consecutive day of major swings, the S&P 500 Index (^GSPC 1.26%) slid 1.4% Wednesday, largely because of results from a singular, $1.1 billion company that triggered a sort of domino effect in the markets. However, today's three worst stocks all slipped far more than 1.4%, for various reasons.
Aerospace and defense company Textron (TXT 0.26%) was easily the most beleaguered in the 500 stock index, losing 13.4% of its value in trading today. An extremely bleak earnings report was to blame: it seems business jets just aren't as popular as they once were! Euphemistically, this is known as a "soft" market, in the words of Textron's CEO. A more than 550% increase from recent average trading volume shows that shareholders fled from the stock en masse.
Teradyne (TER 2.60%), a test equipment and semiconductor producer, slipped 6.1% as technology companies made for some of the worst performers of the day, declining 2.4% as a sector. The stock's woes today weren't much helped by the negative momentum it's had in the last month, when Teradyne saw more than 12% declines; the first-quarter earnings announcement is set for next Wednesday. Though Teradyne's slide shouldn't be overlooked, the most notable laggard of the day is yet to come.
Apple's (AAPL 5.98%) stock not only stumbled 5.5%, but it dragged technology and much of the broader market down with it. All of this because a supplier of the megacompany, Cirrus Logic, reported underwhelming forecasts of its own. Though Cirrus has a market cap just over $1.1 billion, its forecasts can be considered a predictor of demand for Apple products, and its $150 million-$170 million revenue projections for the second quarter sent investors scampering for the exits; Wall Street had projected $190 million in sales for the quarter.
