S&P 500, Nasdaq dip as Alphabet slides
By Ankika Biswas and Shashwat Chauhan
(Reuters) — The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 slipped on Wednesday as tech giant Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) slumped after its cloud division missed revenue estimates, while post-earnings gains in Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Boeing (NYSE:BA) helped lift the Dow.
Google-parent Alphabet slid 8.6% to a three-month low as its cloud business crawled to its slowest growth in at least 11 quarters.
Microsoft, on the other hand, rose 3.8% to a three-month high after topping expectations for first-quarter results in all segments, including its cloud business.
«Investors are worried that Alphabet is losing out to Microsoft and Amazon in a sector deemed to have enormous growth potential due to the future uptake of generative artificial intelligence,» David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation, said.
However, a rise in long-dated U.S. Treasury yields also weighed on other mega-cap stocks. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), due to report after the closing bell, fell 3.0%, while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) dipped 1.2% and 3.2%, respectively.
Eight of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were trading lower, with communications services touching a near one-month low, while consumer discretionary and real estate were among top laggards.
Even after cutting its 737 delivery forecast for this year, Boeing advanced 1.9% on sticking to its goal of generating $3 billion to $5 billion in free cash flow and beating third-quarter revenue estimates.
Defense contractor General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) rose 3.5% after reporting a jump in third-quarter revenue.
Of the 118 S&P 500 companies that have reported so far, 81% have beaten analysts' earnings expectations, LSEG data showed on Tuesday. Quarterly earnings
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