Tech Titans’ Mixed Results Shake Wall Street’s Bull Run

This week, Wall Street’s unyielding bull market hit a bump due to a variety of quarterly reports from major tech companies like Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Apple, and Amazon. The result was a decline of more than 1% in the benchmark S&P 500, marking its first back-to-back weekly loss since early August.

Investor Concerns

Investor mood was notably subdued following Microsoft’s cautious outlook for Azure cloud growth and Meta’s significant spending plans for artificial intelligence. The dip in their stock prices led to a market slump on Thursday, causing a negative turn for the S&P 500 in October and breaking a five-month streak of gains.

Apple’s Miss and Amazon’s Optimism

At the same time, Apple fell short of expected revenue targets in the important Chinese market and in its services segment. On a more positive note, Alphabet exceeded expectations in both revenue and profit, while Amazon offered optimistic revenue projections for the key holiday season.

Economic Indicators and Fed Outlook

This week also brought a slew of economic updates, including a preliminary estimate of U.S. third-quarter GDP growth, a reading of the Federal Reserve’s favored inflation measure, and the October jobs report. Collectively, the data suggested a weakening labor market, ongoing economic growth, and unresolved inflation, keeping the Federal Reserve on track for a possible interest rate cut next week.

Market Performance

Overall, the S&P 500 dropped by 1.4% for the week, the Nasdaq Composite decreased by 1.5%, and the Dow saw a modest decline of 0.2%.