Stock Markets Tumble – Apple Warns Ahead of Earnings Season

The global stock markets fell sharply this morning after Apple Inc. shook the market sentiment with years end’s thin sales warning. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook blamed China for reducing forecast of Q4 revenue by billions of dollars. The trade war between China and the US is hurting the Chinese demand for iPhone which is impacting its corporate profits.

So, the biggest reason behind a sell-off was a fall in demand for Apple products in China as well as in other developing countries. Here’s a quick update on stock indices:

• S&P500 SPX trades bearish at 2,477.38, down -1.34%.
• FTSE 100 also trade lower at 6,715.33, falling -0.28% for the day.
• DAX – German30 fell to 10,454.02, nearly -1.17%

In addition to this, the volatility index (VIX) rose to 25.94, up about 11.71% today. The figure shows a rise in the risk aversion level in the market. The rising value of VIX leads investors away from stock markets to the safe haven assets such as gold and Japanese Yen.