| |
| |
 |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
NEW YORK - US shares slumped Friday as the market consolidated at the end of a busy week for company earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 109.13 points (1.08 percent) to 9,972.18, a day after the blue-chip index gained more than 100 points on earnings optimism.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite shed 10.82 points (0.50 percent) to 2,154.47 and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 13.31 points (1.22 percent) to 1,079.60.
The major indices logged their first weekly loss since the start of the month.
The market opened higher but slipped into negative territory as traders reacted to results from computer software giant Microsoft and other companies such as online retailer Amazon.
Microsoft reported that net profit fell 18 percent in the first quarter of its fiscal year but surpassed Wall Street expectations.
"Much stronger-than-expected earnings posted by Microsoft and Amazon helped those two stocks, but failed to translate to the broad market," Wells Fargo Advisors senior equity market strategist Scott Marcouiller said.
Although most company earnings topped analyst expectations, "the news has failed to lift the overall market," said Briefing. com. "Weakness was widespread."
Even fresh data showing robust existing home sales were shrugged off.
The National Association of Realtors said home sales surged 9.4 percent in September, the highest level in over two years for the troubled sector at the epicenter of the global financial crisis.
With stocks already near 2009 highs, "traders are contemplating how much current stock valuations already reflect the better prospects for corporate earnings," analysts at Charles Schwab & Co said in a note to clients.
"While earnings levels were universally better than projected, revenue levels have been more mixed, which has been another key issue for traders this earnings season," they said.
Others pointed out that investors may be looking to lock in gains after the stunning rally that has the main indexes near their highs for 2009.
Amazon rocketed 26.80 percent to 118.49 dollars, the highest closing level in its history, after reporting a profit of 199 million dollars, well ahead of expectations, on strong sales of its Kindle electronic book reader.
Microsoft meanwhile jumped 5.38 percent to 28.02 dollars as the number one software group topped expectations with a quarterly profit of 3.57 billion dollars.
Among other key stocks, American Express shed 5.10 percent to 34.58 dollars as it beat profit forecasts but announced overall credit card spending had fallen.
Bonds fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond increased to 3.475 percent from 3.421 percent Thursday and that on the 30-year bond climbed to 4.289 percent from 4.249 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
- AFP /ls
|
