Dow slides after Apple delivers bombshell China warning
So much winning 
New York (CNN Business)Apple is feeding some of Wall Street's biggest fears.
US stocks dropped sharply on Thursday after Apple warned it will badly miss its quarterly sales forecast because of weakening growth and trade tensions in China. Apple (AAPL), among the world's most widely held stocks, plummeted 10% and fell to the fourth-biggest public company behind Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOGL).
The news sent shudders through global markets. The Dow plunged as much as 677 points, or nearly 3%. Stocks bounced off their lows, with the Dow down about 400 points in recent action. The S&P 500 lost 1.3%, while the Nasdaq declined 1.6% and flirted with bear market territory.
US stocks took another hit after the December ISM US manufacturing index plunged by the most since October 2008. The closely-watched barometer of factory activity tumbled to a two-year low, providing further evidence of slowing growth and pain from the US-China trade war. ISM said manufacturing activity is still growing, but suffered a "sharp decline" last month.
"Awful, and worse to come," Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, wrote to clients on Thursday. "Trade wars are not easy to win."
Apple's bombshell
Apple's stark warning reinforced multiple investor concerns. First, it suggests that analysts may be too optimistic about corporate earnings in the challenging global environment. And Apple's trouble navigating China backs fears that the slowdown in the world's No. 2 economy is already hurting profits for multinational companies.
More: https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/03/investing/stock-market-today-apple-dow-jones/index.html
