European stocks hit by ripple effects from Apple
* FTSE 300 down 0.3 pct
* Technology shares hit by Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) disappointment
* EasyJet (Other OTC: ESYJY - news) , Danske Bank (Copenhagen: DANSKE.CO - news) gain
By Liisa Tuhkanen
LONDON, July 22 (Reuters) - European shares dropped in early trading on Wednesday, led lower by technology stocks after disappointing results from Apple, as the quarterly earnings season gathered pace in Europe and on Wall Street.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 0.3 percent at 1,591.53 points by 0837 GMT. It fell 1.1 percent in the previous session.
The STOXX Europe 600 Technology index shed 1.3 percent, with chip designer Arm Holdings (LSE: ARM.L - news) among those falling the most. It fell 3.7 percent after the results from Apple, a major customer, despite posting a 32 percent rise in second-quarter profit.
Among mid-caps, German chipmaker Dialog Semiconductor (Xetra: 927200 - news) tumbled 7 percent.
"Of course Apple is a really big company, and having disappointed a little bit on the sales side of things, does tend to reverberate around the world in technology stocks ... but we would consider that to be just normal volatility," said Wouter Sturkenboom, a senior investment strategist at Russell Investments.
"The Greek resolution is now largely priced into European markets, so going forward we're more focused on the European fundamentals ... which we think are very favourable, so we continue to hold European equity overweight in the back of that view."
Danish lender Danske Bank rose the most, up 5.2 percent after a significant earnings beat.
Europe's second-biggest budget carrier, easyJet, also gained, jumping 4.7 percent on guidance for annual profit growth of up to 14 percent.
"With all the concerns that the market has had about excess capacity in the market and the likely impact on yields, we believe that these results will be well received," Numis analysts wrote in a note.
Europe bourses in 2015: http://link.reuters.com/pap87v
Asset performance in 2015: http://link.reuters.com/gap87v
Today's European research round-up
(Editing by Larry King)