Twitter dive continues tech loss

Technology companies led a slide in U.S. stocks Friday, adding to the market’s losses from another tech-driven selloff a day earlier.

Twitter plunged more than 20 percent, its second-biggest loss since going public in 2013, after the social media network said its monthly users declined in the second quarter.

While technology stocks made up much of the market’s drop, smaller-company stocks fell more than the rest of the market. The losses outweighed gains in banks and phone companies.

The S&P 500 index fell 18.62 points, or 0.7 percent, to 2,818.82. The Dow Jones industrial average slid 76.01 points, or 0.3 percent, to 25,451.06. The Nasdaq composite index, which is heavily weighted with technology companies, lost 114.77 points, or 1.5 percent, to 7,737.42. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks gave up 32.02 points, or 1.9 percent, to 1,663.34.

The week ended largely as it began, with investors focused on a cavalcade of company earnings reports, most of which have topped Wall Street’s forecasts.

“There were clearly high expectations coming into second-quarter earnings and we’ve seen where companies have performed well relative to those expectations, they’ve typically been rewarded, and where they have fallen short of those expectations, either in current quarter or future guidance, is where you’re seeing [selling] occur,” said Bill Northey, senior vice president at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.

This was the busiest stretch of the second-quarter earnings season, with roughly a third of companies in the S&P 500 reporting results. While some companies posted results that fell short of analysts’ forecasts, most delivered better-thanexpected results and favorable outlooks.

Of the 49 percent of the

companies had of Friday, issued earnings some quarterly in the 65 and S&P percent results revenue 500 that reported as that beat to analysts’ S&P Global forecasts, Market according Intelligence.

The government said Friday that the U.S. economy surged in the April-June quarter to an annual growth rate of 4.1 percent. That’s the fastest pace since 2014, driven by consumers who began spending their tax cuts and exporters who rushed to get their products delivered ahead of retaliatory tariffs.

The economic snapshot had been widely expected, so it didn’t have a noticeable impact on the market or the sell-off in technology stocks.

For the second straight day a social media company led a steep decline in the technology sector. Twitter plummeted 20.5 percent to $34.12 after the company disclosed user totals and a forecast that disappointed investors.

Snap, the company behind the Snapchat messaging app, slid 4 percent to $12.83. Facebook shares gave up 0.8 percent to $174.89 a day after the social media giant led a slide in technology stocks that snapped the S&P 500’s threeday winning streak.

Facebook’s steep drop, which erased nearly $120 billion of the company’s market value, was brought on by its warning to investors that it sees slower revenue growth ahead. With Friday’s losses, Facebook shares came within a hair’s length of finishing in a bear market, which is defined as a drop of 20 percent from a recent peak.

Intel skidded 8.6 percent to $47.68 after the chip maker’s latest quarterly report left analysts concerned about the company’s profit margins and key businesses.

Computer hard drive companies contributed to the technology sector losses. Western Digital lost 7.7 percent to $71.13, while Seagate Technology slid 5 percent to $54.69.