US: Wall Street ends mixed after big Netflix disappointment

MAJOR US indices ended trading mixed on Wednesday, with the Dow seeing a minor gain but tech stocks experiencing a selloff after a big earnings miss from Netflix. The streaming giant caught Wall Street off guard for the second quarter in a row, reporting a drop in subscribers for the first time in a decade and sending its shares down by a whopping 35.1 per cent at the close. Investors also digested a Federal Reserve report on business conditions that showed US companies continuing to struggle with high inflation, even as receding Covid-19 cases helped operations return to normal. The National Association of Realtors meanwhile reported sales of existing homes dropped for the second straight month in March, as higher mortgage rates and a scarcity of supply discouraged buyers. The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.7 per cent higher at 35,160.79, while the broad-based S&P 500 was down 0.1 per cent at 4,459.45. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.2 per cent to close at 13,453.07. Traders are also digesting the latest in global economic developments as the IMF and World Bank hold their spring meetings, while US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen led a multi-nation walkout of finance chiefs from G-20 countries when Russian officials spoke, in protest against Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. AFP