US futures decline as tech earnings curb enthusiasm

Bloomberg

US equity futures dropped after disappointing earnings from Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. poured cold water on the rally fuelled by investor optimism that rates are getting close to peaking.
Positive sentiment from this week’s surge in the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 evaporated as investors parsed late results from the tech trio that showed an economic slowdown is throttling demand for electronics, e-commerce, cloud computing and digital advertising. Their shares slumped more than 4% each in premarket trading.
Investors have been cheering what they perceive as varying degrees of dovish tilts from central banks this week. Chair Jerome Powell said the Federal Reserve had made progress in its inflation battle even as the labour-market continues to show tightness that could add to wage pressures.
The Stoxx Europe index retreated after closing within a whisker of a bull market on February 2, with all industry groups in the red on Friday. French drugmaker Sanofi was the biggest decliner in index-points terms after forecasting a slowdown in profit growth this year. Carmakers also weighed on the index, following US peers lower after Ford Motor Co.’s disappointing earnings report.
Asian shares were mixed, with a regional index slipping with Chinese stocks while Japanese and Australian benchmarks eked out gains.
There was no respite in the rout of Gautam Adani’s companies. All 10 of the group’s stocks fell as the Indian billionaire battles to restore confidence in his conglomerate’s financial health after accusations of fraud by short-seller Hindenburg Research. Shares of Adani Enterprises Ltd. dropped as much as 35%, the most ever during intraday trading,
before paring loss.
Elsewhere in markets, oil headed for a second weekly drop as optimism over a recovery in Chinese demand dimmed and US stockpiles kept rising.
Gold rose slightly after slumping almost 2% as traders sold off haven assets amid renewed optimism developed nations including the US are reining in inflation.

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