Wall Street Faced with Bleak Numbers in Earnings; Biggest Loss in 4 Months

History repeats after 25 years – U.S. stocks plummeted once again after the 1987 stock market crash, the legendary Black Monday, when The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:.DJI) shed 205.43 points, or 1.52 percent experienced its single-day percentage loss at 22.6%. On Friday, earnings General Electric and Microsoft looked dismal for industrial and technology sectors.

The S&P 500(INDEXSP:.INX) shed 24.15 points, or 1.66 percent, to 1,433.19. the NASDAQ Composite (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC)  fell 67.25 points, or 2.19percent, to end at 3,005.62.

General Electric Company(NYSE:GE)’s quarterly estimates were at par with Wall Street predictions, but revenue was not in spite of the conglomerate remaining firm on its full-year earnings forecast. Shares went down by 3.40% to $22.03. Microsoft Corporation(NASDAQ:MSFT) reported that sales of computers powered by Windows fell, affecting their quarterly profit by taking it down 22%. Stock went down to $28.64 at 2.9%.

The 50-day moving average of S&P is under the scanner, after the benchmark index bounced off that average, and is being viewed as enhancing more selling if it can be broken tactically. Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati, states that though their position is steady for now, it could take a serious beating if the earnings does not improve. In spite of declining somewhat, each of the major U.S. stock indexes have not fared too badly - the S&P on the whole has risen 0.4% this week, with Dow going up 0.2% and Nasdaq being off by 1.1%.

McDonald's Corporation(NYSE:MCD) was down at $88.72 at 4.46% and revealed a profit figure way lower than analyst predictions. Even Google, whose earnings among the highly anticipated ones, reported weak numbers after the data was accidentally released on Thursday ahead of schedule. Stock went down to $681 at 2%. U.S. manufacturer Honeywell’s numbers looked promising as it went up 1.7% to $62.47 with quarterly results shooting up 10%.

The technology sector needs to buck with the semiconductors augmenting the weakness – a 4.9% gain in SanDisk to $44.98 with Marvell Technology Group Ltd.(NASDAQ:MRVL) and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.(NYSE:AMD) falling to $7.57 at 14.3% and $2.18 at 16.70% respectively.