Last Updated: January 22nd, 2009: 11:59 AM ET---The major US equity indices are sporting substantial losses, near session lows, as investors take profits from Wednesday's surge and shy away from risk in light of Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) dreary preanouncement and disappointing economic data, which has offset any enthusiasm from Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) better-than-expected earnings. Shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) soared after the Cupertino, California-based company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results, printing a profit of $1.61 billion, or $1.78 per share, up from $1.58 billion, or $1.76 per share during the year-ago period and trumping analysts' average estimates of $1.39 per share. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) provided guidance of 90 cent to $1 per share for the upcoming quarter missing estimates of $1.13 per share, however, the company has a history of giving overly conservative projections. On the other hand, a report from Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) preanouncing its disappointing results and cost cutting efforts offset Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) surprising earnings. According to the report released Thursday morning, the Redmond-based tech giant saw second-quarter results fall to $4.17 billion, or 47 cents per share, down from $4.71 billion, or 50 cents per share a year earlier and missing estimates by three cents. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) also announced that it will cut as many as 5,000 employees, 1,400 of which will be cut today while the rest of the reduction will take place over the next 18 months. Earnings reports from the financial sector were less then stellar, with Fifth Third (NASDAQ:FITB), Sun Trust (NYSE:STI) and KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY) all reporting heavy losses. Following the close, a SEC filing showed Jamie Dimon had bought 500,000 shares of JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM). Meanwhile, Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) CEO Ken Lewis had bought 200,000 shares in his bank. In economic news, the Labor Department released its weekly jobless claims reading showing first time applications rose to a seasonally adjusted 589,000 last week, up from a revised 527,000 reading the week prior. The reading is the highest since December 20th, and surpassed forecasts for a 540,000 reading. According to a report from the Commerce Department, housing starts fell 15.5% in December to a seasonally adjusted annual reading pace of 550,000 units, making it the largest relative decline since January of '07. The reading puts the entire '08 decline at 33.3%. At the time of this report, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 259 points to 7,969, the S&P 500 is trading 28 points lower to 812 and the Nasdaq is trading 60 points lower to 1,447.

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