Investors wonder if Apple's earnings can alter view of cooling tech

After surging more than 16% off the mid-February stock market bottom, the technology-dominated Nasdaq has cooled.

And a big reason for investors’ chilly reception to tech stocks was the double whammy after last Thursday’s close when tech titans Microsoft (MSFT) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) both disappointed Wall Street with profit reports that fell shy of expectations.

The Nasdaq has fallen three consecutive sessions and is off 1.3% since its April 18 high.

Wall Street is hoping iPhone maker Apple (AAPL) -- which is facing a sales slump of its own -- can inject some confidence back into the tech sector when it reports quarterly earnings after Tuesday’s closing bell.

But like most companies, Apple, which is experiencing a slowdown in iPhone sales, isn’t expected to have a blowout quarter.

In fact, it’s seen boosting earnings by $2 per share, 14.2% less than the $2.33 it earned in the same quarter a year ago, according to earnings tracker Thomson Reuters, based on analysts’ latest profit estimates. Revenues for the just-completed quarter are expected to drop 10.4% to roughly $52 billion, vs. $58 billion a year ago.

Apple has already warned that quarterly iPhone sales and revenue versus a year ago will be lower than originally forecast, marking the first-ever decline in iPhone sales. What Wall Street wants to see is Apple top the lowered earnings bar, project confidence about its core iPhone business moving forward and deliver strong results in China, which is becoming a bigger piece of its revenue pie.

In terms of performance, Apple's stock is lagging the broad Standard & Poor's 500 stock index so far in 2016. Apple shares, which closed at $105.08 Thursday, are up just 0.2% for the year, vs. a gain of 2.1% for the broad market gauge. In pre-market trading Tuesday ahead of today's earnings release, Apple shares were off 34 cents to $104.74. In 2015, Apple shares fell 4.6%.

The world’s most-valuable company is being eyed closely by tech investors.

Its earnings results and what it says about future quarters could give the Nasdaq and the tech-stock space either new life or reinforce the negative vibe that kicked in late last week with misses from Microsoft and Alphabet.