Nasdaq slide leads Wall Street lower

July 13, 2012 | 09:10

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The Nasadaq stock index led Wall Street lower Thursday, as traders shrugged off data showing US unemployment claims fell to their lowest level since March 2008.

The Nasadaq stock index led Wall Street lower Thursday, as traders shrugged off data showing US unemployment claims fell to their lowest level since March 2008. (AFP Photo/Andrew Burton)

Many of the tech industry's biggest hitters themselves got hit, as Infosys's revenue warning sparked a spate of selling that forced the Nasdaq down 0.75 percent (21.79 points).

Infosys's US shares were down over 11 percent while Apple shares fell 0.9 percent and Microsoft fell 2.3 percent.

"The weakness is due to understandable concern over next week's earnings reports," said analysts at Briefing.com.

The Nasdaq stood at 2,866.19 points at the end of trade.

With much of the corporate and tech world yet to report earnings, news that India's Infosys cut its full-year revenue outlook sent shock waves through the market.

Nasdaq-listed Infosys announced a net profit of 22.89 billion rupees ($416 million) in the first quarter, a rise of 33 percent, undershooting market expectations of a 24.34 billion rupee profit.

Meanwhile the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 31.26 points (0.25 percent) to 12,573.27 points.

The S&P 500 fell 6.69 points (0.50 percent) to 1,334.76.

Earlier in the day the Labor Department reported 350,000 initial jobless claims were filed in the holiday-shortened week ending July 7. That was a decrease of 26,000 from the prior week's upwardly revised number of 376,000.

The US bond market strengthened slightly.

The 10-year Treasury yield fell point 0.02 to 1.48 percent, while the yield on the 30-year fell by point 0.03 to 2.58 percent.

Yields go down as prices go up.

AFP

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