LDN - Business

Wall Street ends lower, weighed down by Apple

[May 01, 2021] By Noel Randewich and Shivani Kumaresan

(Reuters) - Wall Street ended lower on Friday, with Amazon, Apple, Alphabet and other tech-related companies weighing on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq despite recent strong quarterly earnings reports.

A day after the S&P 500 closed at a record high, Apple, Google-parent Alphabet and Facebook each gave back gains following upbeat quarterly reports this week.

Amazon.com Inc ended down 0.1% after it posted record profit late on Thursday and signaled that consumers would keep spending in a growing U.S. economy. Amazon had been up over 2% earlier in the session.

Twitter Inc plunged 15% after it offered a tepid revenue forecast for the second quarter, saying user growth could slow as the boost seen during the pandemic fizzles.

While megacap favorites posted largely strong earnings in the first quarter, their shares have struggled to maintain the upward trajectory that many had coming into reporting season.

"There is a sense that maybe next quarter is as good as it's going to get, and we're going to roll over, particularly among the Nasdaq stocks and Big Tech stocks that benefited from the pandemic," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Wealth Advisors in Palm Beach, Florida.

Seven of the 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes fell, with technology and materials down more than 1%, and energy falling almost 3%.

Of the 303 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported so far, 87% have topped analysts' earnings estimates, with Refinitiv IBES data now predicting a 46% jump in profit growth.

Data on Friday showed U.S. consumer spending rebounded in March amid a surge in income as households received additional COVID-19 pandemic relief money from the government.

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A street sign, Wall Street, is seen outside New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, New York, U.S., January 3, 2019. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.54% to end at 33,875.31 points, while the S&P 500 lost 0.72% to 4,181.21.

The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.85%, to 13,962.68.

Despite Friday's weakness, the Nasdaq completed its sixth consecutive month of gains, rising 5.4% in April. The Dow added 2.7% in April while the S&P 500 rose 5.2%, both gaining for a third month in a row.

For the week, the S&P 500 was about flat, the Dow lost 0.5% and the Nasdaq shed 0.4%.

Chevron Corp dropped 3.6% after its first-quarter profit fell 29%, hit by weaker refining margins and production losses.

AbbVie Inc rose 0.5% after it reported strong results and raised its 2021 earnings forecast, helped by demand for its rheumatoid arthritis drug in the United States.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 2.13-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.13-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 52 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 84 new highs and 45 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.3 billion shares, compared with the 9.8 billion full-session average over the last 20 trading days.

(Reporting by Shivani Kumaresan and Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru, and by Noel Randewich in Oakland, Calif.; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

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