U.S. technology stocks wobbled between gains and losses in volatile trading on Wednesday, following disappointing results from Alphabet and Microsoft.
Google’s parent alphabet has reported a serious problem advertising business with search results slowing down, sending its shares down as much as 9% after the New York opening bell. Shares of Microsoft fell as much as 8.2% after the company warned that revenue growth from cloud computing had slowed. Both companies then retested some of which fell to 6% and 5% lower trades.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell more than 2% in early trades on Wednesday before cutting its slide to trade 0.2% lower on the day. The index has lost nearly 30% of its value this year as concerns grow about the outlook for tech companies amid high inflation and rising interest rates.
Investors have been scrutinizing the company’s results for signs that the company’s rapid price growth and challenging economic environment are affecting the company’s bottom line.
Wall Street’s broad S&P 500 index reversed early losses to trade with a 0.5% gain.
In the government bond market, the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 0.1 percentage point to 4 percent as its price rose.
The dollar, meanwhile, fell 1% against a basket of six other currencies, bringing the US currency back to levels last seen in late September.
Chris Turner, global head of markets at ING, thinks the dollar’s recent moves are less likely to cause “any kind of downside” for the US economy and more for the US economy. Investors are hunting for bargains in other countries. US consumer confidence get worse in October after two months of gains, according to a closely watched index released on Tuesday.
In Europe, the regional Stoxx Europe 600 index reversed earlier losses to 0.7%. The moves come as Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest lender, reports profit before tax in the third quarter since before the financial crisis, thanks in part to rising interest rates.
The European Central Bank, which meets on Thursday, is expected to raise borrowing costs by 0.75 percentage points for the second month in a row, to 1.5 percent, to curb already-stricken inflation. reached 10 percent in the year to September.
On Tuesday, the ECB warned that tighter monetary policy and falling consumer confidence had contributed to a sharp drop in demand for housing loans. However, demand for corporate loans increased year-on-year as companies struggled with higher costs and falling demand.
However, Gergely Majoros, a member of the investment committee at Carmignac, said natural gas discount in Europe and hopes that the US Federal Reserve and the ECB may start raising interest rates at a slower pace in the fourth quarter and into the new year means that “short-term concerns among investors have much less.”
London’s FTSE 100 index gained 0.6% in afternoon trade, while yields on 10-year gilts lost 0.05 percentage points to 3.58%.
Sterling added 1.1% against the dollar to $1.16.
Asian shares rose after falling sharply for Chinese technology shares in the previous session. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 1% higher and Japan’s Topix rose 0.6%.
