U.s. Stocks Drop On Apple Slump

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[b] Biggest Losses[/b]
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Nine out of 10 groups in the S&P 500 fell as technology and phone-company shares had the biggest losses. Apple retreated 1.7 percent to $641.37, dropping 4.5 percent in three days.[/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=Arial][size=4]
Facebook lost 1.7 percent to $20.56 after being cut to sell from neutral by BTIG, which cited the social-networking company’s struggles to generate revenue from its mobile users. The company’s 2013 earnings will be “significantly below” analysts’ estimates, said [url="http://topics.bloomberg.com/richard-greenfield/"]Richard Greenfield[/url], an analyst at BTIG Research, citing the social-networking site’s struggles to get revenue from mobile users.[/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=Arial][size=4]
“We’ve been growing increasingly skeptical of some of their monetization methods,” Greenfield, who cut his rating on the shares to sell, said in an interview today on “Bloomberg Surveillance” with [url="http://topics.bloomberg.com/tom-keene/"]Tom Keene[/url].[/size][/font][/color]
[b] ‘Collapsing’ Business[/b]
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Facebook’s payments business is “collapsing” as companies such as game maker [url="http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/ZNGA:US"]Zynga Inc. (ZNGA)[/url] grapple with lower demand, putting more pressure on Facebook to increase advertising sales, Greenfield said. The social-networking company risks annoying its mobile customers by cluttering the service with ads, the analyst said.[/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=Arial][size=4]
[url="http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/PRGS:US"]Progress Software Corp. (PRGS)[/url] plunged 13 percent to $18.70 after it said Chief Executive Officer Jay Bhatt will step down and withdrew its fourth-quarter revenue forecast, citing concern that sales may slip during the transition.[/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=Arial][size=4]
[url="http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/GDOT:US"]Green Dot Corp. (GDOT)[/url] sank 17 percent to $10.32. The prepaid-card firm that derives most of its revenue from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. fell after the world’s biggest retailer said it would expand sales of a competing product from American Express Co.[/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=Arial][size=4]
Netflix rallied 11 percent to $73.60 after the company was raised to overweight from equalweight at Morgan Stanley.[/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=Arial][size=4]
[url="http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/NAV:US"]Navistar International Corp. (NAV)[/url] climbed 7.7 percent to $22.84. The company, which ousted its chief executive officer after a failed engine strategy, agreed to add [url="http://topics.bloomberg.com/mark-rachesky/"]Mark Rachesky[/url], an associate of investor [url="http://topics.bloomberg.com/carl-icahn/"]Carl Icahn[/url] and a third to-be-named person to its board, averting Icahn’s threat of a ***** fight.[/size][/font][/color]
[b] Cliffs Natural[/b]
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[url="http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/CLF:US"]Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (CLF)[/url] jumped 6.4 percent to $40.80. The largest U.S. iron-ore producer rose after a jump in prices for the steelmaking raw material. Iron ore for immediate delivery in China rose 6 percent to $110.40 a ton, the biggest gain in a month, according to data from The Steel Index Ltd.[/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=Arial][size=4]
As [url="http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/SPX:IND"]third-quarter earnings[/url] season begins, the companies analysts are most bullish about are the ones whose stock prices are farthest below their highs -- banks.[/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=Arial][size=4]
While [url="http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/S5FINL:IND"]financial institutions[/url] in the S&P 500 climbed 24 percent in 2012 for the biggest rally in nine years, they remain 58 percent below the record of February 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Signs of a housing recovery prompted Wall Street firms to raise estimates for profit growth to 21 percent for the third quarter and 32 percent in the fourth, the most of 10 S&P 500 industries.[/size][/font][/color]