The benchmark US stock market indices opened lower on Thursday after mixed tech results and a hawkish Federal Reserve.
The S&P 500 opened in the red, trading 0.56% or 38.44 points lower at 6,852.15, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite opened nearly 1% or 227.21 points lower at 23,731.26, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened 0.17% or 81.27 points lower to trade at 47,550.73.
As of 7:35 p.m., the S & P 500 fell 0.29% and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.69%, while Dow Jones erased losses to trade 0.37% higher.
The share price of Meta Platforms tanked more than 12% in the early minutes of trade after the giant’s rating was humbled by Oppenheimer to ‘perform’ from ‘outperform’ on account of its heavy AI spending.
The Facebook and Instagram parent reported revenue growth of 26% that beat market estimates, but that jump was outpaced by a 32% increase in costs.
Other major names like Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. also traded in the red, 0.51% and 2.16% lower respectively. The grass was greener for other market titans like Apple Inc., which traded 0.60% higher.
Oracle’s stock also traded 2.30% lower at $269.23 on Thursday after the US market opened.
Six out of the 11 sectoral indices were trading lower, with consumer discretionary leading the decline, while five traded in the green with the financial sector leading the gains.
Spot gold was up 1.66% to $3,995.28 an ounce. Crude oil prices fell, with West Texas trading 1.01% lower at $59.86 per barrel and Brent crude trading 0.96% lower at $63.67 per barrel.
The Bloomberg Dollar Index was up 0.4%, with the British Pound down 0.4% to $1.31 and the Japanese yen slipping 1% to 154.29 per dollar.
Bitcoin, the largest traded cryptocurrency, fell 3.3% to $107,736.58.