Wall Street tumbles, S & P falls as much as 2 percent

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street's major indexes fell on Monday, with the S & P 500 sliding 2 percent, weighed by technology and financial stocks as shares of Apple Inc.AAPL.O) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) cam under pressure.

COMMENTS:

RANDY FREDERICK, VICE PRESIDENT OF TRADING AND DERIVATIVES FOR CHARLES SCHWAB IN AUSTIN, TEXAS:

"At the end of the week on Friday, people were going out of the weekend. That's an uncommon thing especially when we had a pretty sharp rally earlier in the week after the midterm elections. And then we have what I call a "partial holiday" today. So anytime you've gotten a weekend more than just a weekend away – but the markets are open today the banks are not – for people to take some risk off the table, especially after a market move, is not uncommon. But I kind of thought we would have a bit of a bounce this morning and we did not get that at all.

"I think the big thing was the tech sector. Certainly it was a couple of stocks that do business with Apple. And Apple itself is down a lot. It's a big bellwether in many indexes and it's considered a bellwether for the whole tech industry and I think it's kind of sparkling some panic across several tech sectors including semiconductors … The thing about tech is that it's the biggest sector in the market – it's 21 percent of the market, which is huge. But also these guys have been outperforming for a good part of this year and, in fact, not just this year but for several years. So they tend to be highly volatile. When they lead to the upside they also tend to lead to the downside, and get some concern about that, people get a little uncertain, a little scared and they start selling them off. "

CHUCK CARLSON, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AT HORIZON INVESTMENT SERVICES IN HAMMOND, INDIANA

"Looks like we've gone through the bulk of the market's attention. And today's trading may be exacerbated by the holiday and volumes may be a bit lower. A couple of things are going on.

"One, you continue to see the adjustment in market leadership, today that was really accelerated with continuing growth of the high-growth tech area, spurred by reports that Apple's smartphone business can be slowing. Money is shifting from there into risk-off assets, utilities, defensive stocks, dividend payers. That's an adjustment that had been happening for some time, but there seems to be an acceleration today.

"Couple that with concerns about the dollar's strength and what might mean for corporate profits going forward. The biggest issue is the pendulum swing back to value, dividend-paying stocks, risk-off assets versus where we were early in the year, which was growth, growth, growth. When you have significant shifts in your life, it is possible that you are flopping around out there.

"Certainly volume can impact the thinner market and that can accentuate moves. That is a factor that may be exacerbating the decline today, you probably have a lower market participant today. Tomorrow it will be interesting to see if people are willing to step into the world. When the bond market opens up with the stocks, maybe the stock market took over all of the selling today. If people are in a selling mood they are going to sell what they can sell. Today the only thing they could sell were stocks. Tomorrow is going to be pretty telling in terms of how important this one-day trading activity was. "

PETER JANKOVSKIS, CO-CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER AT OAKBROOK INVESTMENTS LLC IN LISLE, ILLINOIS:

"I would say at the moment it seems the path of least resistance is down. Obvious the techs are dragging on the market pretty heavily. We have also seen energy, we are joining together in a closer relationship.

"Most of the stuff has been out there, having been weighing all day, that is the biggest change I can see. (Goldman Sachs) is certainly hitting the financials, the financials as a whole with the market overall.

"You just have to wait and see, realistically we are getting to the point where things are a little overdone.

RANDY FREDERICK, VICE PRESIDENT OF TRADING AND DERIVATIVES FOR CHARLES SCHWAB IN AUSTIN

"I think it's just Apple. It's such a big company and such a bellwether for all things tech. The tech sector has been a year-to-date leader and it's a high beta sector, it's starting to become a bigger drag on the way down.

"It seems a bit overdone to me. There is quite a bit of volatility in the oil markets and the dollar is up a little bit, but this kind of a selloff is pretty substantial. It seems to be widespread. It's a bit surprising. "