The five most valuable tech companies lost a combined $321.6 billion from their market caps on Monday — the worst day for US stocks since the 2008 financial crisis, CNBC reports.
In fact, not a single tech stock featured in the S&P 500 finished the day in the green. Apple lost the most of the top five, down 7.9%. Amazon’s share price dropped by 5.3%, while Alphabet, Facebook, and Microsoft fell by more than 6%.
The Elon Musk-led Tesla, a major tech stock not included in the S&P 500 index, took a veritable beating by losing 14%. Data storage device manufacturer Western Digital sank 13%.
[Read: Apple can sell devices in India because of Trump administration, says Tim Cook]
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IT services company DXC suffered the biggest loss of the tech firms in the index, falling 18% by the day’s close, CNBC notes. Rough news, considering DXC’s share price dropped almost 30% last year.
Oil, coronavirus fears put pressure on global markets
A tussle over oil output between Russia and Saudi Arabia has been blamed for the epic downward pressure on global markets, fuelled by plunging oil prices and rising coronavirus anxiety across the world.
The carnage on the major US stock exchanges was so great that so-called “circuit breakers” were tripped, pausing trade for 15 minutes in a bid to halt panic-selling.
Recovering slightly on Tuesday’s open, the S&P 500 index is up just over 3.50% at pixel time, while Apple is in the green by 4.72%.
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