Tech stocks hit hard amid fears of second coronavirus wave

Tech stocks fall across the board as US registers huge leap in COVID-19 cases

America's largest tech stocks including Apple, Microsoft, IBM and Cisco all took a hit on Thursday amid a surge in COVID-19 cases and fears of a second wave.

The five highest valued US tech stocks - Apple, Google parent Alphabet, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon - fell in value by more than $269bn on Thursday.

Apple shares fell by 4.8 per cent, Google by 4.3 per cent, Amazon by 3.4 per cent, Microsoft by 5.3 per cent and Facebook by 5.2 per cent.

Other US tech giants such as Cisco and IBM suffered steep falls at 7.9 per cent and 9.1 per cent respectively.

Thursday marked the worst single-day falls in US stock values since 16 March - when S&P 500 and Dow Jones averages fell by more than 11 per cent. Yesterday's falls amounted to 5.9 per cent on the S&P 500 and 6.9 per cent on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The declines come as the COVID-19 crisis continues to worsen across the US, with cases recently surpassing two million, sparking fears of a second wave.

At the time of writing, 116,035 people have died in the US from coronavirus. States across the south and west of the US, including Florida, Texas, California, Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina, recently reported a spike in new cases, raising concerns that the virus is continuing to spread beyond previous hotspots such as New York and New Jersey.