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 Google parent Alphabet’s disappointing cloud business in the past quarter. The positive figures from the software giant Microsoft did little to change the resulting clouded mood for tech stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial, which fluctuated between moderate gains and losses at times on Wednesday, ultimately lost 0.32 percent to 33,035.93 points. The market wide S
“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 from broker Oanda. Instead, the contrasting results of the two companies are now unsettling. “What made the clear difference was artificial intelligence,” said Erlam. This gave Microsoft a lead and a strong start to the trading day. Alphabet, however, is lagging behind, and this has been felt by the cloud business, which, in contrast to Microsoft, has grown more slowly.
While the shares of the software giant Microsoft jumped 3.1 percent below the top values in the Dow and Nasdaq 100, Alphabet’s A and C shares each lost around nine and a half percent at the bottom of the Nasdaq selection index. This meant they suffered their biggest daily loss since March 2020. Microsoft had invested billions of US dollars in a pact with the ChatGPT developer company Open AI and is now integrating their technologies across its own product range.
Shares of numerous chip manufacturers came under pressure: Intel, for example, fell 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 figures and outlook.
Visa shares, on the other hand, rose by 0.9 percent in the Dow. The credit card provider generated significantly more sales in the past 2022/23 financial year thanks to its customers who were fond of spending and traveling, which also had a positive impact on the results. However, the entire sector on both sides of the Atlantic suffered from statements from Worldline, whose shares lost almost 60 percent. The French online payment service provider sent a shock wave through Europe’s fintech sector that morning with its capped annual sales target and warning of economic challenges, which now also weighed on sentiment in the USA.
According to the quarterly report presented, Boeing fell by 2.5 percent. The production errors on the 737 Max medium-haul jet set the aircraft manufacturer back even more this year than expected, but the annual forecast range for adjusted free cash inflow was confirmed.
The euro remained below $1.06 in US trading and was last traded at $1.0569. The European Central Bank set the reference rate in Frankfurt in the afternoon at 1.0576 (Tuesday: 1.0632) dollars. The dollar therefore 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. In return, the yield rose to 4.95 percent.
