Apple panic: Down 6%, falls below $400

Shares of Apple plunged as much as 6% Wednesday afternoon and hit a new 52-week low of $398.11 in the process. Shares recovered a bit as the day wore on and closed just under the $403 mark. But Apple's stock is now down almost 25% this year and is more than 40% below the all-time high it hit just last September, according to CNN Money.

Apple has been a hated stock all year, but why did it completely fall apart on Wednesday? The catalyst appears to be a weak sales outlook from chip company Cirrus Logic after the closing bell Tuesday. Cirrus is a key supplier to Apple. Its audio chips are used in the latest iterations of the iPhone and iPad mini. Shares of Cirrus (CRUS) plunged nearly 14% on the news.

So is the bear run in Apple finally nearing an end stage? Apple's earnings don't come out until April 23. So we may not know the answer until then. But traders on StockTwits had plenty to say about the iPhlop.

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