The Nasdaq Composite plummeted on Wednesday after a sell-off in Alphabet, the parent company of Google, drove down a larger group of tech firms.
The tech-heavy index fell by almost 1%, and the S&P 500 declined by 0.5%. With a 0.2% increase, or 76 points, the Dow Jones Industrial Average defied the downward trend. Boeing and Microsoft helped the Dow rise.
After Alphabet’s third-quarter earnings were released a day earlier, tech stocks were mainly under pressure. Despite its revenue growth and profits beat, Alphabet’s cloud division failed analyst projections, sending its shares plunging more than 8% lower. Apple and Amazon’s shares decreased by 2.5% and 1%, respectively, while those of other IT giants fell.
With its shares rising 3.9% after first-quarter results exceeded Wall Street expectations on Tuesday, Microsoft stood out as an anomaly among the slide in tech companies.
Boeing’s stock increased by 2.1% as the company’s third-quarter earnings revealed that revenue from commercial aircraft topped forecasts. The company kept its forecast for free cash flow for the year unchanged. Undoubtedly, the massive aerospace company reported a higher-than-expected adjusted loss for the reported quarter.
IBM and Meta, two tech companies, will announce their quarterly results in the afternoon. Of the S&P 500 businesses, about 29% have released their third-quarter earnings as of yet. Seventy-eight of the businesses have surpassed expectations.
Source (CNBC )
