Apple sinks 4 percent, pulling down S&P and Nasdaq indexes
BY Staff and Wire reports
Saturday, December 15, 2012
12/15/12 at 4:33 AM
Apple Inc., the most valuable American company, slumped Friday, helping to drag down the stock market.
Shares of Apple dropped 4 percent after the launch of the iPhone 5 in Beijing failed to draw the long lines of customers that showed up for previous versions, according to news reports. Analysts at UBS cut their earnings estimates and price target for Apple, which lost $19.90 to close at $509.79.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 5.87 points to close at 1,413.58, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite sank 20.83 points to 2,971.33. Apple is the biggest stock in both indexes.
The Dow, which doesn't include Apple, fell 35.71 points to 13,135.01.
All three stock-market measures lost ground this week, but they are up for the year - the Dow 7.5 percent, the S&P 12.4 percent and the Nasdaq 14.1 percent.
