The Small Apple: Falling Far From the Expectations

Updated from 5:17 p.m. ET

There's only so long a 10% Nasdaq rally could have made investors forget about the sickly PC sector.

Apple (AAPL Quote) warned after the close of regular trading Tuesday that its fiscal first-quarter sales and earnings would each come in below expectations. The company said it expects sales for the period ending Dec. 30 to total a scant $1 billion, a considerable $600 million below the consensus forecast of analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial and more than $1.3 billion below the company's sales in the year-ago period. The first-quarter shortfall forced Apple to lower its guidance for fiscal 2001 sales to $6 billion to $6.5 billion, well shy of the previous $7.8 billion consensus.

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