Intel shares plummet as Apple cuts ties

INTEL shares cratered yesterday, tumbling by 9pc after reports its major customer, Apple, plans to manufacture its own chips by 2020.

The technology giant was already tracking lower in morning trading but fell sharply after Bloomberg revealed Apple intends to produce its own chips for its Mac computers, a defining move for the world’s largest corporation in terms of market value.

The computer titan accounts for 5pc of Intel’s annual revenue, making Apple’s planned switch a heavy blow.

Aside from the severe hammering endured by Intel, all the tech majors came under pressure yesterday. The general selloff wiped out the Nasdaq index’s gains for the year and pushed the benchmark S&P 500 below a closely watched technical level for the first time in nearly two months.

All the 11 major S&P sectors fell, as markets reacted to renewed fears of a global trade war in the wake of China’s decision to impose additional tariffs on 128 US products.

Amazon fell by more than 4pc after US President Donald Trump launched his latest attack over the pricing of the online retailer’s deliveries through the US postal system and promised unspecified changes.

“A reassessment of technology as well as what the trade issues might mean for exporting US companies are hitting the market at the same time,” said Rick Meckler, president, LibertyView Capital Management, Jersey City, New Jersey.

“The president continues to attack Amazon. Facebook hasn’t done a great job of explaining the problems they’ve had.”

Facebook was also down 1.96pc, while Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet were down between 3pc and 4pc. The technology index was down 2.7pc.