Much of Tech Fares Worse than Wall Street on Bailout Nix

The stock market took a beating today, but it’s important to keep some perspective because things could have been worse. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost about 7 percent in value, but that doesn’t rank among the top 10 percentage losses. Nasdaq lost about 9.1 percent, which is its third biggest percentage drop. However, tech stocks seemed to take even more of a beating.

Looking at yesterday’s numbers for various tech stock sectors, the results are a bit grimmer than even the overall plunge.

Some companies took even more of a beating. Combing through the details of CNNMoney’s tech sector reporting, I focused on the stocks that saw at least a ten percent drop in value.

Not everything could be completely ascribed to the bailout scuttling. For example, Apple stock lost 16 percent yesterday morning because two brokerage firms gave the company neutral ratings.

RBC and Morgan Stanley analysts slapped Apple with neutral ratings, down from buy, on concerns that the slumping economy will put a chill on sales of Mac notebooks and desktop computers.Citing a IQ/Changewave survey, RBC noted that 40% of consumers questioned said they “plan on spending less on electronics in the next 90 days,” RBC analyst Mike Abramsky wrote in the note. This is the weakest outlook ever measured in these surveys, Abramsky wrote.

Why firms like Dell (down 9.35 percent) and HP (down 6.82 percent) weren’t hit quite as hard is because they have sub-$1,000 models, which Apple doesn’t, and that’s the one category whose sales are dropping less rapidly.

Many other tech stocks that felt the biggest hits also directly or indirectly feel consumer slowdowns though such areas as cell phones, automotive, PC sales, and advertising.

Dow chart courtesy CNNMoney.com.