Why Sirius, Twitter, GM, Qualcomm and Plantronics Are Dragging the Market Down Today

General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) is trading down by more than 3.1% on Tuesday afternoon, most likely pushed by the almost-flat (up by 0.5% year-over-year) U.S vehicle sales seen in January. Rival Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) has also slumped today, by 4.60%, after reporting a year-over-year decline in January sales.

While hedge funds were looking to drive away from General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) during the third quarter of 2015, with the number of long positions falling to 88 from 104, legendary investor Warren Buffett was doing the opposite. Over the period, his holding company Berkshire Hathaway boosted its holding by 22% to 50.0 million shares, worth roughly $1.5 billion.

Another decliner on Tuesday afternoon is QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), down by more than 5.3%. The tumble did not seem to be prompted by any particular news, but instead looked like part of the broader decline seen in the semiconductor industry, as all major semiconductor ETFs were down in Tuesday trading. Negative news aside,Barry Rosenstein is quite optimistic regarding QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM)’s future, having taken a large activist position in the stock. As of the end of the third quarter, his fund, JANA Partners, held 28.55 million shares of the company, worth over $1.53 billion.

Finally, there’s Plantronics Inc (NYSE:PLT), down by roughly 23.6% on Tuesday afternoon. The small-cap tech company reported its third quarter of fiscal year 2016 financial results after the market closed on Monday; while earnings came in ahead of estimates, revenue and guidance both fell short of expectations. Management also announced a restructuring plan that will include the firing of 125 employees (at a cost of $12.6 million), and the buyback of 2.0 million shares. Finally, on Tuesday morning, analysts at Raymond James issued a double downgrade on shares of Plantronics Inc (NYSE:PLT), slashing their rating to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Outperform’.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article.