Status: 25.10.2023, 23:27 p.m.
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Quarterly reports from the tech giants are dampening sentiment on the New York Stock Exchange. © J. David Ake/AP/dpa
Google's parent company presents disappointing figures and thus dampens the mood.
New York - After slight recovery gains the day before, the US stock markets fell in the middle of the week. The technology-heavy Nasdaq indices in particular were very weak. They suffered from the disappointing cloud business of Google's parent company Alphabet in the past quarter. Even the pleasing figures of the software giant Microsoft could do little to change the resulting gloomy mood for tech stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial, which at times oscillated between moderate gains and losses on Wednesday, ultimately lost 0.32 percent to 33,035.93 points. The market-wide S&P 500 lost 1.43 percent to 4186.77 points. The Nasdaq 100, which is predominantly stocked with technology stocks, slumped by 2.47 percent to 14381.64 points.
"Microsoft and Alphabet's quarterly reports could have been the catalyst for a positive shift in sentiment this week," commented senior market analyst Craig Erlam of broker Oanda. Instead, the contrasting results of the two companies are now unsettling. "What made the clear difference was artificial intelligence," says Erlam. This has given Microsoft a head start and a strong start to the trading day. Alphabet, meanwhile, is lagging behind, and this has been felt by its cloud business, which has grown more slowly than Microsoft.
While shares of software giant Microsoft jumped 100.3 percent among the top performers in the Dow and Nasdaq 1, Alphabet's A and C shares each lost about nine and a half percent at the end of the Nasdaq selection index. This was their biggest one-day loss since March 2020. Microsoft had poured billions of US dollars into a pact with ChatGPT developer Open AI and is now integrating its technologies across its own product range.
Shares of numerous chipmakers came under pressure: Intel, for example, slumped by 5.1 percent, Microchip by 6.1 percent and Nvidia by 4.4 percent. Texas Instruments lost 3.5 percent after the semiconductor company disappointed with its numbers and outlook.
Shares of Visa, on the other hand, rose 0.9 percent in the Dow. The credit card provider generated significantly more revenue in the past financial year 2022/23 thanks to its customers who are keen to consume and travel, which also had a positive effect on earnings. At the same time, however, the entire sector on both sides of the Atlantic suffered from statements by Worldline, whose share price lost almost 60 percent. The French online payment service provider had sent a shockwave through Europe's fintech sector in the morning with its capped annual revenue target and warning of economic challenges, which now also weighed on sentiment in the US.
Boeing fell by 2.5 percent after the quarterly report presented. Although the production errors of the medium-haul jet 737 Max set the aircraft manufacturer back even more than expected this year, the full-year guidance range for adjusted free cash flow was confirmed.
The euro remained below $1.06 in U.S. trading and was last seen trading at $1.0569. The European Central Bank had set the reference rate in Frankfurt in the afternoon at 1.0576 (Tuesday: 1.0632) dollars. The dollar thus cost 0.9455 (0.9405) euros.
The prices of US government bonds came under pressure again: The futures contract for ten-year bonds (T-note futures) recently fell by 0.62 percent to 105.70 points. The yield, on the other hand, rose to 4.95 percent. Dpa