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Tech stocks fell in Thursday morning trading as shares of Google parent Alphabet sold off and investors prepared for another busy day of earnings.
The Nasdaq Composite futures retreated 1.3% in early trading, while the S&P 500 fell 0.4%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures declined 0.4%, pulled lower by an 8% drop in shares of Caterpillar (CAT).
Yesterday, the benchmark S&P 500, tech-focused Nasdaq Composite, and blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average finished incrementally higher after the Federal Reserve voted 10-2 in favor of standing pat on interest rates, as expected. Traders now see an 84% likelihood that the Fed will raise rates at least a quarter-percentage point at its December meeting, per CME FedWatch.
Technology stocks, which had led all three major leading U.S. stock indexes to gains in the first three sessions this week after Claude maker Anthropic filed its go-public paperwork on Monday, are mostly selling off Thursday. The Nasdaq 100 index was recently off 1.4%.
Shares of Alphabet (GOOGL), which reported disappointing results late yesterday, were 12% lower. Those of fellow Magnificent Seven mega-cap tech stock Microsoft (MSFT) were down a bit less than 1% even as cloud demand drove strong results.
The Roundhill “MAGS” ETF, which tracks the septet, was more than 2% lower in early trading. Amazon (AMZN), which is set to report results Thursday afternoon, was down more than 4%.
Memory and other AI-tied stocks pointed lower after recording sharp gains each of the first three trading days this week. Roundhill’s Memory ETF (DRAM) was down about 4% after jumping 7% yesterday, Heavily weighted component Samsung Electronics ended 4% lower in South Korean trading today. The broader iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) was down 4%.
Shares of SOXX component Marvell Technology (MRVL) dropped 12% following a Bloomberg report that the semiconductor maker is in advanced talks to acquire optical products maker Lumentum Holdings (LITE). Lumentum shares more more than 3%.
In post-earnings stock moves, Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) jumped 6%, eBay (EBAY) rose 2%, Eli Lilly (LLY) added nearly 9%, Shell (SHEL) advanced 2.5%, and Merck (MRK) gained more than 5%. ServiceNow (NOW) plunged more than 20%. Intel (INTC) is among those slated to report after the closing bell.
DoorDash (DASH) shares gained nearly 2% on news it was buying food-delivery rival Instacart for $17 billion in cash and stock. Shares of Instacart—officially Maplebear (CART)—were down less than 1%.
Oil prices pulled back after The Wall Street Journal reported that Vice President JD Vance sent a letter to Iranian Security Council chief Mohsen Rezaei in hopes of restarting peace negotiations. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude futures declined 2.2% to $100.47 a barrel. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, slipped 1.9% to $109.56.