By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK Wall Street tumbled on Wednesday as Alphabet shares slid after Google's parent posted disappointing earnings and U.S. Treasury yields rose, reviving fears that interest rates could stay higher for longer.
All three major U.S. stock indexes extended losses in the afternoon, and the benchmark S&P 500 was on course to notch its fifth daily decline in six. The Nasdaq suffered the largest percentage decline, with interest rate sensitive megacaps weighing the tech-laded index down 2.3%.
Shares of Alphabet Inc plunged 9.5% after the Google parent reported disappointing cloud services revenue, reviving fears of an economic slowdown.
The communication services sector, of which Alphabet is a constituent, was on track for its biggest daily percentage drop since February 2022.
Benchmark Treasury yields edged closer to the 5% level, reviving fears of interest rates hovering higher and longer than many anticipated.
"The dominant themes of the day are disappointment with tech earnings and rising interest rates," said Jay Hatfield, portfolio manager at InfraCap in New York. "Rates continue to b a huge overhang on the market as they should be."
The yields on 10-year Treasury notes resumed their upward drift after robust new home sales data and mortgage rates reaching 23-year highs affirmed market expectations that of prolonged elevated interest rates heading into 2024.
"New home sales were very strong, well above expectations," Hatfield added. "We're optimistic over the next month we'll get (economic) data that shows rates are too high."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 77.77 points, or 0.23%, to 33,063.61, the S&P 500 lost 56.06 points, or 1.32%, to 4,191.62 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 295.60 points, or 2.25%, to 12,844.28.
Among the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, communications services was suffering the largest percentage loss, while consumer staples and utilities were modestly green.
It is a momentous week for earnings, with nearly one-third of the companies in the S&P 500 expected to post third-quarter results.
So far, 146 of the S&P 500 have reported. Of those, 80% have delivered earnings above expectations.
Analysts now see S&P 500 year-on-year earnings growth of 2.6% for the July-September period, up from 1.6% at the beginning of the month.
Microsoft advanced 3.0% following its better than expected quarterly report.
The economically sensitive Dow Jones Transport Average index touched its lowest in more than four months after trucking firm Old Dominion Freight Line posted earnings.
The trucking firm was last down 3.7%.
Defense contractor General Dynamics rose 4.3% after reporting a jump in third-quarter revenue.
Meta Platforms is due to post results after the bell. The company expected to report its best quarterly sales growth in nearly two years.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 3.34-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.51-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted no new 52-week highs and 61 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 15 new highs and 439 new lows.
(Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional reporting by Ankika Biswas and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio)
