LDN - Business

Futures slip as Amazon warns of cloud slowdown, inflation data on tap

[April 28, 2023] By Sruthi Shankar and Ankika Biswas

(Reuters) -U.S. stock index futures dipped on Friday as Amazon's warning about a slowdown in its cloud business and downbeat forecasts from Snap and Pinterest dented Wall Street sentiment, while investors awaited a key inflation report later in the day.

Amazon.com Inc's shares lost 2.2% in premarket trading as the company signaled its cloud growth would slow further, overshadowing its better-than-expected quarterly results.

Snapchat-owner Snap Inc tumbled 17.8% as it warned next quarter results could miss Wall Street targets, while Pinterest Inc dropped 14% after the image-sharing platform forecast second-quarter revenue growth below estimates as advertising spending declines.

Cloudflare Inc also tumbled 25.9% on a downbeat revenue forecast from the cloud services provider.

The weak updates follow stronger-than-expected earnings from big technology and growth companies this week including Alphabet Inc, Microsoft Corp and Meta Platforms Inc which led analysts to improve first-quarter profit estimates for S&P 500 companies.

The main U.S. indexes ended up sharply on Thursday, with the benchmark S&P 500 logging its biggest one-day percentage gain since early January.

Analysts expect first-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies to fall 2.4% year-over-year compared with a forecast for a 5.1% fall at the start of April.

Investors will closely monitor personal consumption expenditure index reading, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, due at 8:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT).

The core rate for March, excluding prices of volatile items such as food and energy, is expected to remain unchanged at 0.3% from the previous month and slip to 4.5% from 4.6% year on year.

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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., April 10, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Further, the University of Michigan's preliminary reading of consumer sentiment index for April, due after the opening bell, is expected to remain unchanged at 63.5.

Data on Thursday showed U.S. economic growth slowed more than expected in the first quarter, while plunging consumer confidence in April heightened the risk that the economy could fall into recession this year.

Still, the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points at its May 2-3 meeting, potentially the last hike in the U.S. central bank's fastest monetary policy tightening cycle since the 1980s.

The U.S. central bank will publish at 11 a.m. ET (1500 GMT) its internal review of its supervision of Silicon Valley Bank, whose failure set off a broader loss of investor confidence in the banking sector.

At 7:23 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 127 points, or 0.37%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 15.25 points, or 0.37%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 37.25 points, or 0.28%.

Colgate-Palmolive Co gained 1.6% after the toothpaste maker lifted its annual organic sales forecast betting on consistent price hikes.

Exxon Mobil edged up 0.2% after the energy giant posted record first-quarter profit.

Chipmaker Intel Corp gained 5.5% after it said gross margins will improve in the second half of the year.

First Republic Bank rose 4.5% as U.S. officials are coordinating urgent talks to rescue the beleaguered lender, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Ankika Biswas in BengaluruEditing by Vinay Dwivedi)

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