Thursday’s stock market finish was another mixed bag, with dismal quarterly reports from some major technology companies offsetting advances across the market.
The S&P 500 lost 0.6%, with almost 44% of the equities in the benchmark index losing ground. The Nasdaq, which is heavily weighted toward technology, sank 1.6%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 0.6%.
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Meta Platforms, Facebook’s parent company, fell 24.6%, the most in the S&P 500, after posting a second straight quarter of revenue reduction due to dropping advertising revenues and intense competition from TikTok. It followed major tech and communications firms, including Alphabet, Google’s parent company, and Microsoft, in posting poor results and gloomy expectations for advertising demand. Alphabet declined 2.9%, while Microsoft fell 2%.
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Amazon slid 19% in after-hours trading after the retail giant issued an estimate for sales in the last quarter of the year that came in well below analysts forecasts. The stock fell 4.1% in regular trading before the release of its latest quarterly results.
Construction equipment maker Caterpillar jumped 7.7% after it handily beat analysts’ third-quarter profit forecasts. The big gain helped boost the 30-company Dow.
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Another pullback in long-term Treasury yields helped support stocks in companies that weren’t reporting quarterly results. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences mortgage rates, fell to 3.91% from 4.01% late Wednesday. The two-year yield fell to 4.30% from 4.42%.
The S&P 500 fell 23.30 points to 3,807.30. The Dow rose 194.17 points to 32,033.28. The Nasdaq fell 178.32 points to 10,792.67.
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Smaller company stocks held up better than the broader market. The Russell 2000 index added 1.99 points, or 0.1%, to 1,806.32.
Excluding the Nasdaq, the major indexes are on pace for weekly gains. And the S&P 500 remains solidly on track to end October in the green.
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Earnings have been the big focus for Wall Street this week, but markets got some encouraging economic news Thursday as the government reported the U.S. economy returned to growth last quarter, expanding 2.6%. That marks a turnaround after the economy contracted during the first half of the year.
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Wall Street has more earnings to review Friday, including Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Charter Communications.
Meanwhile, S&P Dow Jones Indices said Thursday that insurer Arch Capital Group will replace Twitter in the S&P 500 index before the opening of trading on Tuesday.