A profits warning from mobile phone maker Motorola yesterday brought this week's recovery in technology stocks to a juddering halt.
The US group said fourth quarter profits would be more than 40% lower than projected, a message in sharp contrast to Tuesday's upbeat message from Nokia. Motorola blamed a slowing semi-conductor market and delays in cutting wireless telephone production costs.
The news sent a shudder through the markets. Motorola shares fell 3.5%, rivals Nokia and Ericsson were down 2% and 2.4% re spectively while microchip maker STMicroelectronics lost 4.4% .
"It's the same old story ... the bad news keeps coming. We had our fun and games and now its back to the same old routine," said David Thwaites, European equity strategist at BNP Paribas.
