Cisco + Dell = Apple < 20

Our friends at Dell sparked another sell off in technology stocks that simply added to the damage done by The Cisco Effect earlier this week. Dell reportedly has reduced the number of temporary employees it contracts through its various and multitudinous temp-agencies. That was quickly turned into reports that Dell was laying off some 4,000 employees by the media. Dell is reportedly working on plans to reduce their operating budget by 8-10%, but denies that layoffs are anything more than rumor. That, in itself, is a curious response, but what is fact is that the reason why large manufacturing concerns use temporary employees is so that they can hire or fire them at will in order to swiftly match movements in their industries. Dell is one of the kings of temporary employment along with Microsoft.

Motorola has also announced that they would be laying off some 9,000 employees. Motorola has been losing market share in the cell-phone market for the last year.

Worries about the economy recovering in the 2nd half of the year have begun to surface as well, and add in the huge impact that Ciscois lackluster quarterly results had on the markets, stocks just couldnit stand up to sell-off pressures. Of the stocks we track, only Earthlink closed in positive territory on rumors the company may be positioning itself to be sold. More on Earthlink below. The Nasdaq has now given up all of the gains made since the beginning of the year.

Apple saw some strong volume today as it joined in the downward parade of tech stocks. There was no specific Apple news to contribute to the companyis stock movement, but AAPL spent the entire day in negative territory after opening just north of its close from yesterday. At one point, the stock traded as low as 18 11/16 with the high being 20 13/16.

Apple closed at 19 1/8, down 1 5/8 (-7.83%) on strong volume of 10,521,600 shares trading hands.

The Nasdaq closed at 2562.06, down 45.76 (-1.75%).

The Dow closed at 10880.55, off by 66.17 (-0.60%).

The S&P 500 made it a three-some by closing at 1332.39, down 8.50 (-0.63%).

Akamai closed at 24 7/16, a loss of 1 3/16 (-4.63%) on volume of 1,760,800 shares trading hands. Apple is a major shareholder of Akamai.

Adobe closed at 35 3/8, a loss of 9/16 (-1.57%) on heavy volume of 8,109,500 shares trading hands.

IBM closed at 112, a loss of -2.1 (-1.84%) on volume of 6,279,100 shares trading hands.

Motorola announced that they would be cutting some 9,000 jobs in an attempt to realign company operations with current market realities. The companyis stock closed at 18.90, down 0.92 (-4.64%) on light volume of 10,979,200 shares trading hands.

Earthlink announced that they would be loosening their ties with Sprint, and that fueled speculation that the company may be purchased. Think Microsoft/MSN. The stock was the only stock we track to close in positive territory today. ELNK closed at 9 1/4, a gain of 11/32 (+3.86%) on heavy volume of 8,965,400 shares trading hands.

Gateway started off todayis trading fun and closed at 18.75, a loss of 1.29 (-6.44%) on light volume of 2,249,900 shares trading hands.

Dell closed lower at 23 1/2, a loss of 2 9/16 (-9.83%) on volume of 34,738,200 shares trading hands.

Hewlett Packard was targeted by some cautionary warnings from analysts based on the fact that some 30% of the companyis revenue stems from the consumer market. HP closed at 33.50, down 1.34 (-3.85%) on volume of 6,129,700 shares trading hands.

Intel closed at 33 1/2, off by 1 1/8 (-3.25%) on light volume of 40,911,500 shares trading hands.

Microsoft continued to lose ground and closed at 59 1/8, a loss of 3 1/8 (-5.02%) on strong volume of 50,287,400 shares trading hands.

For full quotes on all the companies mentioned in this article, we have assembled this set of quotes at Yahoo! for your reference. For other stories regarding Appleis stock activity, visit our updated Apple Stock Watch Special Report. You can also check out our Apple Financial Boards, a new moderated forum for Apple Investors and people who are interested in Appleis financial dealings.