If there is one thing the market likes is a company whose sales are growing at an accelerating rate. Unfortunately for Apple, its revenues are now growing at a decelerating pace.

As a result, shares of Apple are falling by 9.5% in pre-market trading on Thursday following the company's latest set of results out last night. The technology giant reported an 18% increase in its sales - the slowest rise since 2009 - to $54.5bn, to slightly below the $54.9bn expected by the consensus. Furthermore, the company guided to below analysts' expectations for the following quarter.

Western Digital, a maker of hard drives, is down despite having more than doubled its net profits.

Shares of Netflix are soaring by over 40% after unveiling another 2.05m on-line subscribers during the fourth quarter.

Analysts at Cannacord have cut their target on Apple by $100 to $650.

Initial weekly unemployment claims fell by 5,000 to the 330,000 mark (Consensus: 355,000).

At 15:00 the Conference Board will release its leading economic indicators for the month of December (Consensus: 0.3% month-on-month).

10 year US Treasury yields are now up by two basis points to the 1.83% level.

Front month West Texas crude futures are now higher by 0,595 dollars to the 95.8 dollar mark on the NYMEX.

AB

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