Stocks were mixed yesterday, with the Dow up and the Nasdaq down. It looks like that might be the case again today following some profit problems in tech. Gold and silver are flattish along with Treasuries and the dollar, while crude oil is lower.
The first round of “Big Tech” earnings didn’t live up to the big hype that had been building up. Semiconductor maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), software giant Microsoft (MSFT), and search and online advertising goliath Alphabet (GOOGL) all reported their latest quarterly results after the bell yesterday. And their shares are all falling in the early going today because the numbers, while good, weren’t good enough.
Alphabet reported somewhat disappointing holiday ad sales and forecast higher costs. Microsoft said it would cost more to develop its Artificial Intelligence (AI) products. As for AMD, its Q1 chip sales forecast left investors wanting more. That said, all three of those stocks have been on a tear over the past year, as you can see here.
Source: Yahoo Finance
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve wraps up its two-day policy meeting this afternoon. Neither a rate hike nor a rate cut are expected...but investors will be closely watching to see what Chairman Jay Powell says this afternoon about the potential for cuts to start before long.
Markets are pricing in around five or six 25-point cuts over the course of 2024. This week’s jobs data could influence those bets, however. The ADP employment report we got this morning showed only 107,000 jobs created in January, well below market forecasts for 145,000. We’ll get official Labor Department figures on Friday.
