Almost all technology stocks got hammered yet again on Monday. Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) dropped 8% while Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) lost 4% and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) fell 2%.
And while many see it as a continuation of Friday's rout sparked by LinkedIn's (NYSE: LNKD) weak outlook for the rest of the year, the damage has been piling up for weeks. Investors are fleeing almost all tech names over concerns about the slowing global economy in general and a reassessment of the potential growth of online and "cloud" markets more specifically.
LinkedIn, pummeled by an unprecedented 44% one-day loss Friday, was one of the few tech stocks rising on Monday, as bargain hunters pushed its shares up almost 2%. Still, the shares have lost more than half of their value since the end of 2015.
But, it turns out, there was still plenty more downside risk to go around. LinkedIn is still off by more than 40% since it reported earnings after the market closed on Feb 4. Although fourth quarter adjusted earnings per share of 94 cents U.S. and revenue of $862 million beat the average Wall Street analyst estimate, the professional social networking company said it would earn only 55 cents U.S. on revenue of $820 million in the next quarter. And for the full year of 2016, revenue of $3.6 billion to $3.65 billion U.S. was less than the $3.9 billion Wall Street had been expecting.
Such a modest disappointment has sparked a massive reassessment of the potential for many Internet stocks. With investors in a panicky mood, the carnage has spread across much of the tech sector but stocks with online business strategies similar to LinkedIn's have been hit especially hard. Workday (NYSE: WDAY), providor of online software for human resources, ended down 10% on Monday and 39% for the year. Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) lost 5% and was down 36% for the year. And Adobe Systems (NASDAQ: ADBE) was off 5% on Monday and 20% for the year.
