Last Updated: January 22nd, 2009: 4:50 PM ET---After paring some of their losses during the latter part of the session, the major US equity indices closed with significant declines as investors took profits from Wednesday's surge and shied away from risk in light of Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) dreary preanouncement and disappointing economic data, which offset enthusiasm from Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) better-than-expected earnings. Nine of the ten major economic sectors closed in the red, with health care barely squeezing out gains to close 0.2% higher. The financial sector was the day's worst performer, closing 5.9% lower, followed by energy which closed 2.4% lower despite a slightly higher close by oil. After briefly trading below the 8,000 level, the Dow pared losses to close off 1.3%, at 8,123. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 fell 13 points and the tech-heavy Nasdaq was the worst performing index, closing 2.8% lower on Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) disappointing results. 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 very conservative outlooks. However, 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 Wednesday, 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 other financial industry news, John Thain, ex-CEO of Merrill Lynch resigned after BofA (NYSE:BAC) CEO Ken Lewis lost confidence in Thain when he didn't notify Bank of America about losses Merrill had on their balance sheet last year. The losses were reportedly over $15 billion, which forced Bank of America to go back to the government for additional loans to close its acquisition of the firm. Following the close, another tech-heavyweight Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) reported its fourth-quarter profit fell sharply to $382 million, or $1.21 per share, down from $1.2 billion, or $3.79 per share during the year-ago period. However, excluding special items, Google said it would have earned $5.10 per share beating estimates of $4.95 per share. 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%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 105 points to 8,123, the S&P 500 closed down 13 points to 828 and the Nasdaq Composite Index closed down 42 points to 1,465.

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