Tech giant’s stock price to blame for Dow’s decline
by Tomi Kilgore
Market Watch
Shares of Microsoft Corp. plunged in active trade Friday after disappointing quarterly earnings, wiping away about $30 billion in market capitalization and pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average into the red.
As Microsoft is the third-biggest U.S. company by market value, the stock’s selloff was having an outsize effect on the broader market. It was the biggest percentage decliner in the Dow the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq-100 Index.
The stock dropped $3.74, or 6.7%, in midday trade, putting it on course for its biggest one-day percentage loss since it tumbled 9.3% on Jan. 27, 2015, also following disappointing quarterly results. Volume reached 67 million shares within the first two hours after the opening bell, already more than double the full-day average of 26.4 million shares. Read more about Microsoft’s fiscal third-quarter results.