Indices gave up some of their gains as they were weighed down by underwhelming quarterly results from big players. Oil rose despite hike in inventories.

The U.S. indices gave up some of their gains in today trading session as they were weighed down by underwhelming quarterly results from Microsoft, Alphabet and others. The Dow Jones was down 0.1%, Nasdaq fell 1.86% and the S&P 500 fell 0.71%.

Microsoft fell more than 7% as weaker growth in its cloud business Azure and software guidance surpassed quarterly results that topped Wall Street expectations.

Meanwhile, Alphabet dropped more then 8% after its Q3 revenue and profit fell short of Wall Street expectations due to the impact from slower advertising revenue, which is estimated to continue.

Additionally, Meta Platforms who will report its earnings after the market closes, shares declined sharply as figures from the social media giant are likely to reflect the weaker demand for advertising.

Digital advertising is slowing down, hammering revenues for social media firms and platforms that massively rely on it, such as YouTube (parent Alphabet) and Facebook (parent Meta). PC is also on a slowdown, affecting revenue for hardware and software makers. Consumers are keeping wallets in their pockets due to higher prices for household goods, which is delaying expenditure on more luxurious items.  

Despite the data displaying a hike in crude oil inventories last week, crude prices risen sharply in today’s session making it the first breakout since last Wednesday (19^th). Investors leveraged simultaneously on a weak dollar and the tumble in Treasury yields.

The Commerce Department showed that the U.S. new home sales declined by 11% in September, retreating from the huge gain in the prior month.

Earnings:

• Boeing shares fell approximately 12% from the day’s high. Its shares were trading down 9% at $133.53 in the afternoon.
• Bristol-Myers Squibb beat analyst expectations as it reported an EPS of $1.99 on revenue of $11.22 billion.

(Sources: investing.com, reuters.com)