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The stock market dropped Friday, with technology stocks getting hit the hardest after
Snap
’s
earnings disaster.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
fell 138 points, or 0.4%. The
S&P 500
dropped 0.9%, while the
Nasdaq Composite
tumbled 1.9%.
Snap
(ticker: SNAP) stock fell 39.1%, its second worst daily drop ever, after the social media company missed sales and earnings expectations and said sales have recently been flat year-over-year. Analysts had penciled in growth of close to 20% for the current quarter. The company said on its earnings call that while rising interest rates and high inflation dent consumer demand, brands are pulling back spending on marketing.
“SNAP’s weak Q3 guidance confirmed our fears that ad spending is worsening,” wrote RBC analyst Brad Erickson. “Unfortunately for SNAP and the digital ad sector, we believe there are signs of further ad spending cuts still to come.”
That doesn’t bode well for other advertising businesses.
Alphabet
(GOOGL) stock fell 5.6%, while
Meta Platforms
(META) dropped 7.6%.
The two companies combined market capitalization is about 10% of the tech-heavy Nasdaq’s aggregate market cap, pulling the index down.
Twitter
(TWTR) was in a similar boat, though the stock recovered earlier losses. The company missed sales and earnings expectations, due in part to missing expectations for total monetizable daily active users. The stock ultimately finished the day up1.1 %.
Since the consumer is the problem, the stocks of non-advertising social media platforms were also hit.
Pinterest
(PINS) shares fell 13.5%.
Amazon.com
(AMZN), which has a growing advertising business, saw its stock fall 1.8%.
The Nasdaq experienced a rare day of underperformance. The index had gained 13% from its mid-June low for the year coming into Friday, trouncing the 7% gain on the Dow, which is much less weighted towards tech.
On Friday, weaker-than-expected economic data indicated that the Federal Reserve could be more likely to slow down the pace of interest rate hikes. The S&P Global U.S. Services Purchasing Managers Index, a measure of economic activity in the services sector, fell to a reading of 47 for July. That missed expectations of 53, which would have been essentially unchanged from the June result.
Now, the fed funds futures market is pricing in a 21% chance that the Fed hikes the federal funds rate by full percentage point this month, rather than by three-quarters of a point. That’s down from a 27% chance seen Thursday. Consistent with that, bond yields across the board are down. The 2-year and 10-year Treasury yields are down to 2.99% and 2.78%, respectively.
“The latest economic data releases shored up the likely case for (no more than) a 75 basis point Fed rate hike next week,” wrote Christopher Harvey, equity strategist at Wells Fargo.
That’s good news for the stock market, but right now, Wall Street is taking a moment to reassess earnings expectations in light of the gloomy report from Snap.
Here are some stocks on the move Friday:
Seagate Technology
(STX) fell 8.1% the data storage company blamed weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings and a shaky sales outlook on a rough economic environment. Seagate reported revenue of $2.6 billion, missing Wall Street’s estimates of $2.78 billion, and said it expects sales of around $2.5 billion in the third quarter—which is far below the $3.03 billion Wall Street had expected.
The macro read-across weighed on shares in memory-tech peers
Micron Technology
(MU), which dropped 3.7%, and
Western Digital
(WDC), which declined 6.4%.
Boston Beer Co.
(SAM) stock rose 6.1%, reversing declines, after the company cut its full year earnings forecast to $8.50 a share at the midpoint from a prior midpoint of $13.50.
SVB Financial
(SIVB) stock dropped 17.2% after the company reported a 38% year-over-year drop in earnings per share and said it set aside $196 million for credit losses as it prepares for a worsening macroeconomic landscape.
Intuitive Surgical
(ISRG) stock dropped 5.8% after the company missed sales and earnings expectations.
Write to Jack Denton at jack.denton@dowjones.com and Jacob Sonenshine at jacob.sonenshine@barrons.com
Read More: Tech Stocks Weaken With Earnings in Focus