Silicon Valley Stocks Suffer Wall Street Sell-Off

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS-SF and AP) – A sell-off on the major exchanges Thursday sent shares of Silicon Valley giants Apple, Google, Yahoo, Twitter and Facebook tumbling downward.

Facebook shares closed losing nearly 5 percent of their value, Twitter was down more than 5 percent, Yahoo tumbled by 6 percent and Google dropped just over 2 percent. Apple's week-long slide continued with its shares losing 4.22 percent to trade at its lowest price since October 2014.

The price of oil sank to its lowest level in 12 years Thursday.

The steep drops in U.S. indexes continued what has been a dismal start to the 2016 for global markets.

Technology stocks have been some of the hardest hit. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite has plunged 8 percent since Dec. 29.

The latest cause for worry was a weakening in China's currency to its lowest level since March 2011.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 392 points, or 2.3 percent, to 16,514.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 47 points, or 2.4 percent, to 1,943. The Nasdaq fell 146 points, or 3 percent, to 4,689.

Other global markets also declined. Germany's DAX slid 2.6 percent, the France CAC 40 gave up 1.9 percent, and Britain's FTSE 10 lost 2 percent.

China's stock market has skidded this year as the government prepares to remove measures that were introduced last year to prop up share prices after a meltdown in June. Investors are also concerned that the government is letting the yuan get weaker because that may be a bad sign for the health of China's economy, the second-largest in the world.

U.S. crude fell 21 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $33.79 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, lost 11 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $34.14 a barrel in London. On Wednesday the price of U.S. crude closed at its lowest since December 2008.

Energy companies felt more pain. Anadarko Petroleum gave up $2.13, or 4.9 percent, to $41.64 and Ensco lost 74 cents, or 5.5 percent, to $12.76.

Several mining companies also fell along with the price of copper. Freeport-McMoRan lost 38 cents, or 6.2 percent, to $5.79.

While all 10 industrial sectors of the S&P 500 traded lower, some retail stocks performed well. Macy's shares, which have been in declined since November, rose $1.37, or 3.8 percent, to $37.50 after the company said it will close 40 stores and eliminate more jobs.

Teen retailer Zumiez raised its guidance for the fiscal fourth quarter, and shares gained $3.07, or 20.4 percent, to $18.15. Urban Outfitters advanced 93 cents, or 4.2 percent, to $22.85.

The euro rose to $1.0844 from $1.0788. The dollar fell to 118.14 yen from 118.38 yen late Thursday. The yield on 10-year Treasury bond was unchanged at 2.17 percent.