The Nasdaq technology index ended Wednesday’s session down 2%, dragged down by the performance of Microsoft and Google shares, which presented lower-than-expected quarterly results and showed a greater impact on their sales due to the cooling of the economy. global.
Industry analysts mentioned that technology stocks are headed for disappointing reports, especially when two of their most representative companies fell short of expectations. Given this, the Nasdaq closed at 10,970.99 units, a decrease of 1.96%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.74% and the Dow Jones rescued a marginal growth of 0.01%.
Microsoft and Google shares closed with a decrease of 7.72% and 9.14%, respectively, which dragged other companies such as Facebook (META) with 5.59%; Amazon, with 4.10% and Apple, with 1.96%.
Google reported 6% growth in sales, compared to 41% a year earlier. Youtube sales fell 2%, against an expected increase of 3%. “The company did not meet the sales and earnings per share estimates, given an evident drop in advertising revenue, as a result of the cooling of the economy,” eToro analysts indicated.
On the other hand, Microsoft beat expectations on sales and earnings per share. Sales grew 11% in what would be its first quarter in fiscal terms. However, its cloud business, including Azure, fell short of average analyst expectations.
The technology company warned, in its report, that the growth of its business in the cloud will approach 37%, about five points less than what was achieved this period. Microsoft is a strong company in the technology sector, with profits and margins that have been affected by the almost 20% drop in sales of PCs and laptops.
“It’s been hard to feel optimistic about social media stocks since the start of the year, as companies across all business sectors cut ad spending to weather tough financial conditions,” said Haris Anwar of Investing.com.
The specialist added that despite the gloomy outlook, investors “should not paint all the names of social networks with the same brush”, as he sees buying opportunities with this recent drop in Google shares.
“Microsoft’s results point to the idea that corporate IT budgets are under pressure, and Alphabet’s failure to meet estimates speaks to the consumer perhaps running out of money.” forces; both point to a slowdown in the economy,” said Josh Wein, manager of Hennessy Funds.
The big weakness in the tech sector comes despite a drop in the 10-year Treasury yield, which fell for the second day in a row on growing bets that the pace of interest rate hikes would slow.
With information from Reuters
