If there was any remaining doubt about who the 800-pound gorilla of the stock market is, Apple erased it yesterday. We've seen the computer behemoth elevate the entire market with better-than-expected earnings results; now we've seen it sink the entire market with some rare disappointing results.
Apple reported profits for the second quarter of $9.32 a share, which was a 21 percent increase over the previous quarter. But the consensus analysts' estimates expected even more, with a target profit of $10.37 a share. The rare earnings miss - just Apple's second quarterly miss since 2003 - sent the shares down by more than 5 percent.
With Apple still reigning as the most valuable stock in the world, that drop affected the entire equity universe. The S&P 500 had been up by 0.4 percent earlier in the day, but Apple's drop sent the whole index into negative territory, losing 0.1 percent. All by itself, Apple accounted for the difference between an up day for the S&P and a down day.
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