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On Wednesday major market averages found themselves in negative trading territory with tech dragging after Microsoft sounded concern on top-line outlook.
Early on and the Nasdaq Composite (COMP.IND) slid 2%, the S&P 500 (SP500) dipped 1.4%, and the Dow (DJI) declined by 0.9%.
Microsoft (MSFT) fell 3.3%, reversing its post-earnings pop after CFO Amy Hood said on the conference call that “moderating consumption growth” within the cloud business would likely extend into current fiscal Q3. MSFT guided for quarterly revenue of $50.5B to $51.5B, about $1B shy of the Wall Street consensus.
The caution on the cloud had a knock-on effect on Amazon (AMZN), which was down 4.2%. Also in megacap land, Tesla (TSLA) reports its earnings after the bell today.
Rates were lower. The ten-year Treasury yield (US10Y) fell 3 basis points to three.43% and the 2-year yield (US2Y) fell 2 basis points to 4.12%.
“There’s been a little bit little bit of a bias towards risk-off sentiment during the last 24 hours, thanks partly to some weaker-than-expected earnings releases that added to growing concerns a few potential US recession,” Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid wrote.
The economic calendar is fairly empty and traders will likely be positioning for GDP on Thursday.
Amongst other lively stocks, News Corp. (NWS) is rallying after Rupert Murdoch called off his plan to re-merge Fox and News Corp.