Samsung Loses $12B in Market Value on Galaxy S4 Worries

Samsung Electronics lost about $12 billion in market value and suffered its steepest one-day slump in more than nine months on Friday on jitters about sales of the South Korean electronics giant’s Galaxy S4 smartphone.

The selloff comes as Samsung and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) remain in a heated battle in the smartphone world.

Selling was sparked in part by a cautious note from J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), which warned shipments of the flagship Galaxy S4 for the third quarter will likely “disappoint” investors and cause worse-than-expected margins at Samsung, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

J.P. Morgan analyst J.J. Park said his supply-chain checks reveal monthly orders have been slashed 20% to 30% to as low as 7 million units, Dow Jones reported.

The steep slide also comes just a day after Bloomberg News reported Apple plans to launch an iPhone trade-in program this month in an effort to encourage consumers to upgrade to the iPhone 5. Given the tight competition between the two companies, it’s possible a successful trade-in program could eat into GS4 sales.

Shares of Samsung closed down 6.2% to the lowest level in four months, representing their worst day since losing a key legal battle against Apple in late August.

For its part, Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple slid 0.89% to $435.00 Friday morning, leaving it down 18% on the year.