It's a pretty diverse group with no obvious patterns. The final list of names could vary significantly. Dominant industries were insurance, retail stores, regional banks, real estate investment trusts, retail and some oil drillers. It seems that very few big tech stocks stumble just once with their earnings. So if there's one disappointing quarter, it's generally followed by more.
Recent examples are part of the tech-wreck liturgy by now.
It's all too easy to let your portfolio get washed down the drain in these declines. Without paying any attention to the business fundamentals, it's worthwhile thinking about how that happens psychologically so you can potentially combat it with more rational steps. In July 1998, however, it announced a huge, unexpected shortfall in earnings, and the death spiral began as one poor quarter after another was announced. Volume declined, and even insiders were selling heavily all the way down. The stock bounced around in the low teens for 18 months until suddenly waking up, as if from a nightmare, in July 2000.