Four Reasons Apple's Earnings Miss Is Such a Big Deal

Apple was down more than 8 percent in after-hours trading on those earnings that came in at $1.90 per share (vs. $1.97 expected), an 18.5 percent decline from last year. As the U.S. market's single biggest stock by market cap, the Apple result is bad news for a few reasons. Fourth, by virtue of its market capitalization, Apple has an outsized influence on the major stock averages (mainly, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite) and thus will drag down overall S&P 500 earnings growth for th