NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are off to a mixed start on Wall Street as big drops in several heavyweight technology stocks weighed on major indexes, offsetting gains elsewhere in the market.
The S&P 500 was little changed of 10:40 a.m. Eastern after shaking off an early decline. Tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 0.5%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% to 31,959.
Technology stocks with their huge valuations can have a significant effect on market indexes. The drop in big tech companies weighed down the S&P 500 even though 80% of the stocks were higher.
Google’s parent company Alphabet slumped 7.2% after reporting disappointing third-quarter financial results. This was due to lower advertising sales. Other tech and communications companies are being threatened by weak ad sales. Spotify, the music streaming service, dropped 8% after it reported a bigger loss in the third quarter than Wall Street expected.
The wider market was also affected by Microsoft’s 7% slide. It reported disappointing growth for its cloud computing business, and profits fell with PC sales. After giving investors a disappointing forecast for the current quarter, chipmaker Texas Instruments dropped 3.5%.
Many other tech companies will be reporting earnings this week. Meta, Facebook’s parent company will report earnings on Wednesday while Apple will report its results on Thursday.
Internet retail giant Amazon also reports its results on Thursday along with industrial bellwether Caterpillar and McDonald’s.
The long-term Treasury yields have continued to fall from multiyear highs. These rates have seen mortgage rates rise sharply this year due to the gains.
The yield on a 10-year Treasury fell to 4.2% from 4.10% late Tuesday. The yield on the two-year Treasury fell to 4.40%, from 4.48%.
After a positive report on sales of newly-built homes, homebuilders gained ground. Lennar rose 1.4%.
Investors are focusing on earnings this week. However, they are waiting for several economic updates to get a better idea of how inflation affects consumers and businesses.
Thursday will see the release of the government’s first estimate for third-quarter gross domestic products. The government will release additional data on personal income, consumption, and spending on Friday.
___
This report was written by Joe McDonald and Matt Ott.
Should you invest $1,000 in Texas Instruments right now?
Before you even consider Texas Instruments, here’s something you should know.
MarketBeat keeps track on Wall Street’s top-rated research analysts and stocks they recommend to clients on a daily base. MarketBeat has identified and ranked the following analysts. five stocks Top analysts are silently telling their clients to purchase now before the wider market catch on… and Texas Instruments wasn’t there.
Analysts rate Texas Instruments as a Hold, but top-rated analysts think these five stocks are better investments.
