Warnings drive techs down
The Nasdaq slides for the fourth straight session this week, marked by a plethora of earnings warnings.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index slid 75.95 to 2,004.16 in its fourth straight losing session. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 227.18 to 10,252.68.
In economic news, the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 4.5 percent in June as 114,000 Americans lost their jobs, according to a report from the Labor Department.
That represented 70,000 more job losses than economists expected outside the farm sector, a sign that the economic slump is deepening. On a positive note, the jobless rate in June was better than the 4.6 percent economists anticipated.
EMC's shares fell $8.43 to $21.60 after it missed estimates by such a wide margin that analysts questioned the storage bellwether's business model.
The whole storage sector suffered, as did other enterprise-related stocks such as Sun Microsystems, the Nasdaq's most actively traded loser, down $1.49 to $13.68. CNET's Storage index dipped 25.29 percent.
Advanced Micro Devices plunged $7.84 to $20.80 after the chipmaker said second-quarter sales will miss estimates by a wide margin. Analysts speculated that the problems behind the shortfall--price pressure and weak demand for flash memory chips--will be temporary. Competitor Intel dropped $1.03 to $28.81.
WebMethods issued a profit warning Friday morning. The software company said its loss will be wider than expected and revenue will miss targets in its first quarter. Shares of WebMethods rose $2.81 to $18.57