Amazon.com Inc joined a chorus of Big Tech firms that have
disappointed investors this week by forecasting a slowdown in
sales growth for the all-important holiday season and warned of
a hit to consumers' purchasing power. Shares cratered 13.6% in
premarket trade.
Apple Inc cautioned revenue growth could see some pressure in
the December quarter but shares edged 0.6% higher as the iPhone
maker's fourth-quarter results showed some resilience.
Shares of other megacap tech companies such as Microsoft,
Google-parent Alphabet and Meta Platforms, which reported
downbeat earnings earlier this week, were down between 0.4% and
1.3%. Their shares are down between 6% and 25% for the week.
Tech sector earnings were viewed as a major test of the strength
of corporate America in the face of decades-high inflation and
the dismal results have fed into fears of a looming recession
from aggressive monetary policy tightening by the Federal
Reserve.
While another 75 basis point rate hike from the Fed next week is
largely priced in, traders are now waiting for a key U.S.
inflation data due at 8:30 am ET to gauge whether the central
bank could ease its pace of rate hikes in December.
The report is expected to show the Personal Consumption
Expenditures Index (PCE), the Fed's preferred inflation measure,
climbed 5.2% on a year-over-year basis in September when
stripped of volatile food and energy costs.
At 4:32 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 97 points, or 0.3%, S&P
500 e-minis were down 30 points, or 0.79%, and Nasdaq 100
e-minis were down 130.75 points, or 1.16%.
A report on Thursday showing a rebound in U.S. economic growth
in the third quarter had helped ease slowdown fears.
Twitter was set to be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange,
a day after Tesla chief Elon Musk completed his $44 billion
acquisition of the social media company. Arch Capital Group will
replace Twitter on the S&P 500 from Nov. 1.
Shares of Tesla were down 1.1% premarket.
(Reporting by Amruta Khandekar; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
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