stocks are set to open sharply lower Tuesday, as investors return from a holiday to the shock news from tech giant Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) that it wouldn’t meet its March quarter sales guidance set just three weeks ago due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak in China.

At 7:00 AM ET (1200 GMT), futures for the S&P 500 traded 0.5% lower, futures for the Nasdaq were down 0.8%, while the Dow Jones futures contract lost 0.6%. U.S. equity markets were closed Monday for the Presidents Day holiday.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), the world’s most valuable technology firm, said earlier Tuesday that it would not meet the revenue guidance, provided in late January, for the second quarter due to work slowdowns and lower demand due to the outbreak of Covid-19 in China.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) was expected to be hard hit, given how much of its supply chain and consumer market are in China. But it didn’t update its sales guidance of between $63 and $67 billion, reflecting a high degree of uncertainty that spooked investors.

“As production in China is ramped up more slowly than previously anticipated and the effects on the global tech supply chain become evident, equity investors might have to brace themselves for more negative news,” said analysts at Danske Bank, in a research note.

updated on Tuesday 18, Feb 2020.