By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The S&P 500 slipped Friday, paced by a decline in energy and Amazon-led weakness in tech stocks.
The S&P 500 fell 0.42%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.37%, or 128 points, the Nasdaq was down 0.60%.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) slumped 7% after reporting weaker-than-expected guidance and second-quarter revenue that fell short of Wall Street estimates.
Revenue was held back by “customers spending less time in the home as restrictions and lockdowns eased in some of the company’s largest markets,” Wedbush said. “Initial Q3:21 guidance was for revenue of $106.0 – $112.0 billion, well below our $119.5 billion estimate and the consensus estimate of $118.9 billion.”
Other megacap tech stocks, with exception of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), failed to pick up the slack as Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) were in the red.
Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) slumped 18% after its better-than-expected earnings and revenue were overshadowed by monthly active numbers that missed Wall Street estimates.
Global monthly active users, or MAUs, rose 9% to 454 million, missing estimates of 484.4 million, while U.S. MAUs slipped 5% to 91M million, below estimates of 96.1 million.
Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), a major Dow component, slipped 3% even as the industrial equipment maker reported quarterly results that topped analysts estimates.
Energy also played a role in the broader market selloff, down more than 2%, as oil majors Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) fell despite reporting better-than-expected quarterly results.
Still, the quarterly earnings season so far has mostly surprised to the upside, with earnings on track for the highest annual growth since 2009.
About 59% of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported results, according to FactSet. “The index is currently reporting the highest year-over-year growth in earnings since Q4 2009,” it added.
Sentiment on the broader market has also been sourced by fresh fears about the impact of the delta variant on the recovery.
“An internal CDC report leaked to the public claims that the Delta variant of COVID-19 is as infectious as chickenpox and can cause more serious illness. The document also suggests that vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals may be able to transmit the disease at near the same rate,” DA Davidson said in a note.
In other news, Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD), up about 3%, clawed back some its losses following its 8.4% slump on its trading debut on Thursday.