US STOCKS-S&P futures slip as tech hit by Apple forecast

Tue Jan 22, 2008 5:41pm EST

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(Updates with Apple's slide after the close)

NEW YORK, Jan 22 (Reuters) - U.S. S&P 500 stock index futures slipped after the closing bell on Tuesday as a weaker-than-expected forecast by Apple Inc. (AAPL.O) hit shares of major technology companies.

Shares of Apple slid 9 percent to $140.68 after the bell.The company, among the market's technology bellwethers, gave a second-quarter profit outlook below Wall Street's estimates. For details, see [ID:nWNAS7220]

Shares of Google Inc (GOOG.O) were down 2.1 percent at $571.80 after closing at $584.35 on Nasdaq. Shares of Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) also were off 2.1 percent, falling to $19.51 after closing on Nasdaq at $19.92.

S&P 500 futures SPc1 were down 8.30 points, below fair value, a mathematical formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract.

The drop in S&P equity index futures "is all Apple-related. It is one of the bellwethers. As Apple goes, so goes the Nasdaq.

"(The market is) using it as a proxy. I think Apple is too big a name in tech land ... it's a little bit retail, it's tech oriented, and that's the problem," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey. (Additional reporting by Chris Sanders; Editing by Jan Paschal)