Nasdaq books losses as Amazon, Apple drag

By Sruthi Shankar

(Reuters) - The Nasdaq Composite index was sharply lower on Wednesday, dragged down by losses in Amazon and tech heavyweights such as Apple and Intel.

Amazon fell more than 5 percent after reports that President Donald Trump was looking to target the company by changing its tax treatment.

Apple dropped about 1 percent after Goldman Sachs analyst cut sales estimate for iPhone for March and June quarters, citing weak demand.

Intel was down 3.7 percent and weighed the most on the S&P tech index.

"Tech and discretionary stocks have been strong. Those are two sectors that are up year-to-date and what we're seeing is profit-taking in the quarter-end," said Michael O'Rourke, Chief Market Strategist, Jonestrading, Greenwich, Connecticut.

Facebook's shares rose marginally after days of losses that wiped out more than $100 billion in market value.

The social network said it was giving users more control over their privacy by making data management easier and redesigning the settings menu, following a global outcry over data privacy issues at the company.

At 11:46 a.m. ET (1346 GMT) the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 21.57 points, or 0.09 percent. The S&P 500 was off 1.81 points, or 0.07 percent and the Nasdaq Composite was down 39.67 points, or 0.57 percent.

The main indexes were on track to record their worst month since January 2016, hurt by fears of a trade war between the United States and China as well as rising U.S. interest rates.

Comments from top officials of the two countries had given a sense that they would negotiate over President Donald Trump's move to impose tariffs on Chinese goods.

However, China's state-run Global Times reported on Wednesday that the country was expected to soon announce a list of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports.

Tesla dropped more than 7 percent after the U.S. government said it would investigate a fatal crash and vehicle fire of a Model X in California.

Lululemon Athletica surged more than 11 percent after the Canadian athletic apparel maker posted a surprisingly strong fourth-quarter profit and forecast further growth in the first quarter.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,472 to 1,316. On the Nasdaq, 1,528 issues fell and 1,272 advanced.

The S&P 500 index showed no new 52-week highs and 7 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 13 new highs and 92 new lows.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)