US: Stocks tumble on mixed earnings, high Treasury yields

WALL Street stocks slid on Wednesday as traders digested mixed corporate earnings and elevated Treasury yields.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.3 per cent lower at 33,035.93.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 1.4 per cent to 4,186.74, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index plunged 2.4 per cent to 12,821.22.

Shares in tech giant Microsoft meanwhile closed 3.1 per cent higher as its results beat expectations, as Google parent Alphabet fell 9.6 per cent to end the day.

The drop came as Alphabet’s Google Cloud business missed consensus revenue expectations on slowing growth, casting a pall on results that otherwise beat earnings expectations overall.

“Alphabet’s earnings were certainly disappointing,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers.

“Microsoft did better than expected in cloud computing but the market is tending to follow (Alphabet’s) comments,” he added.

“When you have a small group of stocks that are leading the market, that have such premium valuations, it’s really difficult if they don’t meet expectations,” Sosnick noted.

Meanwhile, the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note remained elevated after recently breaching the five per cent level for the first time in 16 years.

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The surge has exacerbated worries that Federal Reserve interest rates will stay higher for longer, denting the growth outlook.

Looking ahead, investors are keeping an eye on US gross domestic product figures due early Thursday, and results of tech giant Meta. AFP