Tech stocks reeling amid late-August market tumult

Steven Loeb · August 24, 2015 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/3fb5

Facebook down 21% from all-time high, up 220% from IPO; How about the rest of the tech pack?

Stocks were pummeled Monday, enduring their biggest one-day drop in four years and continuing their downward slide for the fifth day in a row.

In one week alone, the Dow has lost 10% of its value. Apple is down 13% while Facebook has seen 12% slashed from its market cap.

For the day, the Dow skidded 3.6% to 15,871.28 - the worst one-day drop in four years, since it dropped 634 points, or 5.5%, on August 8, 2011, and its 8th worse one-day point loss in history.

But the start of the day was even shakier, after the Chinese and European markets got hammered -- both of them having their worst days since 2007 - dropping 8.5% and 5% - respectively, the Dow saw 1100 points, or 7%, evaporate in the first minute, before it recovered some of those losses. 

To date, the Dow is down 14% from its all-time high hit of 18,312.39 hit on May 19.

The S&P 500 has fallen more than 10% from its peak reached on May 21. And Nasdaq is ended the day down 179.79 points, or 3.8% at 4,526.25, down 11% from its record high of 5056.06 in April.

Tech stocks in particular were hit hard during regular trading, with many of them opening the day downhuge amounts from their closes on Friday. Almost all of them still ended the day in negative territory.

Lets look at some of the biggest tech stocks and how they performed today, as well as historically:

  • Apple

Opening price: Apple stock closed trading on Friday at $105.76, but opened trading on Monday at $95.17, down over $10. It recovered a tad and was down only $1.72 or roughly 1.5%, to $103.12 a share for the day. 

Losses in last five days: 13%

All-time high (hit late July): $132.07

Down from all-time high: 21% 

IPO (1980): $22

Up from IPO: 475%

  • Facebook

Opening price: Facebook stock opened at $75.62, down over 12% from its Friday closing price of $86.06, getting hit the hardest of all other tech stocks. It closed the day at $83.09.

Losses in last five days: 12%

All-time high (hit late July): $98.39

Down from all-time high: 21% 

IPO (2012): $38

Up from IPO: 220%

  • Microsoft

Opening price: Microsoft closed trading on Friday at $43.07, and opened up trading on Monday at $40.59 a share, a softer hit than most others. It's closing price was $42.13 a share, a dip of 2.18%.

Losses in last five days: 17%

All-time high (in 1999): $58.38

Down from all-time high: 11% 

IPO (1986): $21

Up from IPO: 200%

  • Google

Opening price: Google took one of the biggest hits of all, opening at $572.86, down $30 from $612.48 on Friday. The stock closed at $594, losing 3.02%.

Losses in last five days: 11%

All-time high (mid-July): $699.62

Down from all-time high: 15% 

IPO (2004): $85

Up from IPO: 700%

  • Netflix

Opening price: Netflix was another stock that was slaughtered in the early goings on Monday, opening at $88.67 a share, down $15 from Friday's close of $103.96. Netflix was the stock that was hit hardest, losing $6.91, or 6.65% of its price, closing at $96.88.

Losses in last five days: 23%

All-time high (early August): $126.45

Down from all-time high: 23% 

IPO (2002): $15

Up from IPO: 650%

  • Twitter

Opening price: Twitter opened on Monday at $23.57 a share, down from $25.87 at the end of Friday. It closed at $25.26, down 2.36%.

Losses in last five days: 13%

All-time high (December 2013): $73.31

Down from all-time high: 11% 

IPO (2013): $26

Down from IPO: 2%

  • Yelp

Opening price: Yelp opened at $21.65 a share, down from Friday's close of $23.09. Yelp closed at $23.03, losing only 2.68%

Losses in last five days: 13%

All-time high (March of 2013): $98.04

Down from all-time high: 77% 

IPO (2012): $15

Up from IPO: 35%

  • Groupon

Opening price: Groupon opened at $3.75 a share, down from Friday's close of $4.10. The stock closed at $3.99, losing 0.26%

Losses in last five days: 10%

All-time high (November, 2011): $26.19

Down from all-time high: 86% 

IPO (2011): $20

Down from IPO: 80%

  • LinkedIn

Opening price: LinkedIn opened at $166.23 a share, down from Friday's close of $179.5. The stock closed at $172.24, losing 4.25%.

Losses in last five days: 9%

All-time high (February): $270.76

Down from all-time high: 36% 

IPO (2011): $45

Up from IPO: 380%

  • Box

Opening price: Box opened at $12.78 a share, down from Friday's close of $14.07. The stock closed at $13.02, losing 7.5%.

Losses in last five days: 10%

All-time high (same day as IPO): $23.23

Down from all-time high: 45% 

IPO (2015): $14

Down from IPO: 7%

  • GrubHub

Opening price: GrubHub opened at $26.35 a share, down from Friday's close of $28.13. The stock closed at $27.16,  down 3.45%.

Losses in last five days: 13%

All-time high (April): $47.18

Down from all-time high: 42% 

IPO (2014): $26

Up from IPO: 5%

Brief recovery

While looking that over, you may have notice that many of the stocks seem to have come back, albeit briefly, during the trading day. And it's true: there was a brief recovery that occured mid-day.

That can be attributed to a note from Apple CEO Tim Cook to CNBC's Jim Krarmer, regarding his company's performance in China.

Citing growth in iPhone activations "over the past few weeks," Cook reaffirmed his belief in the Chines market "as LTE penetration is very low and most importantly the growth of the middle class over the next several years will be huge."

You can see the entire letter below:

The letter, which was an obvious attempt to stave off the bleeding, worked, temporarilty at least, before the Dow dropped another 588 points. Apple may be the most profitable company ever, but even Cook's reassurances leply wasn't enough to stave off the panic.

(Image source: safetyservicescompany.com)

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