US open: Mixed start to trading ahead of more big tech earnings

dl exchange place wall st street pl new york city nyc ny nyse stock exchange dow jones sp nasdaq finance dollar dollars us usa united states of america — Exchange PlaceSharecast photo / Josh White

Trading got off to a mixed start on Wednesday as weaker-than-expected third-quarter earnings from Alphabet and Microsoft weighed on sentiment.

As of 1510 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.36% at 31,951.82, while the S&P 500 fell back 0.43% to 3,842.67 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 1.44% weaker at 11,037.79.

The Dow opened 115.08 points higher on Wednesday, extending gains recorded in the previous session as investors thumbed through data and earnings from some of the nation's biggest tech firms.

Google parent company Alphabet traded lower in early trade after the giant fell short of expectations on both the top and bottom lines and posted a decline in YouTube advertising revenue, while Microsoft delivered cloud revenue that failed to meet consensus, despite beating both earnings and revenue estimates, and also provided current-quarter revenue guidance that fell short of expectations.

Turning to Wednesday's earnings slate, Facebook parent Meta Platforms will release their latest sets of quarterly figures after the close of trading.

In terms of data, mortgage applications fell 1.70% week-on-week in the seven days ended 21 October, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, marking a fifth consecutive drop amid continued increases in borrowing costs.

Elsewhere, America's shortfall on trade in goods with the rest of the world widened unexpectedly during the previous month amid a drop in exports. According to preliminary figures from the Department of Commerce, in seasonally adjusted terms, the so-called visible trade deficit increased at a month-on-month pace of 5.7% to reach -$92.2bn. Economists had pencilled-in a print of -$87.8bn.

On another note, building permits increased 1.4% month-on-month in September to an annualised clip of 1.56m, according to the Census Bureau, in line with preliminary estimates.

Finally, new home sales decreased to 603,000 in September, according to the Census Bureau, down from 677,000 a month earlier.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

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