Investing.com– U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday, hit by a disappointing growth update, but losses have been limited by a rally by Google owner Alphabet after the tech giant reported strong quarterly earnings.
At 09:35 ET (1335 GMT), the index fell 32 points, or 0.1%, the index fell 6 points, or 0.1%, and it fell 5 points, or 0.1% .
US third quarter GDP disappoints
Data released early Wednesday showed the U.S. economy grew at a slower-than-expected pace in the third quarter, with the world's largest economy growing 2.8% in the July-September period.
Economists had forecast the figure would match the second quarter's 3.0% pace.
The equivalent data, released early Wednesday, surprised to the upside, with quarterly growth of 0.4%, above the 0.2% forecast.
Additionally, it grew by 233,000, an increase from last month's revised 159,000, a precursor to Friday's widely watched data.
These readings are likely to influence the outlook for interest rates and come ahead of the Fed meeting next week, where the central bank is expected to cut rates by 25 basis points.
Volatility in stock markets is also expected to increase in anticipation of the 2024 presidential election, with voting scheduled for November 5. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are heading into a close race, although recent polls and prediction markets showed Trump gaining some ground.
Alphabet rises on strong earnings
In the corporate sector, shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:) rose 7% after Google's parent company reported better-than-expected earnings for the September quarter, while saying its investments in artificial intelligence were now paying off. .
Its cloud business – which is closely tied to ai – grew at its fastest pace in eight quarters, while election-related spending also boosted advertising sales, especially on YouTube.
Alphabet's strong results set a positive tone for its tech peers' upcoming results, which will be released in the coming days.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ and Microsoft (NASDAQ ) will report after the close on Wednesday, followed by amazon (NASDAQ and Apple (NASDAQ ) on Thursday.
Elsewhere, shares of Humana (NYSE rose more than 3% after the health insurer beat third-quarter earnings estimates, driven by the strength of its government-backed Medicare Advantage senior insurance business. .
On the other hand, chipmaker AMD (NASDAQ fell almost 10% after its forecasts for the current quarter were disappointing.
Shares of Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ fell more than 4% after the consumer goods company posted a steeper-than-expected drop in quarterly revenue as demand for its branded meal kits and snacks remained weak.
Shares of Eli Lilly (NYSE fell more than 12% after the drugmaker missed third-quarter earnings estimates, even as demand for its weight-loss drug soared, hit by higher manufacturing costs. manufacturing and procurement related.
Crude oil helped by API inventories
Oil prices rose on Wednesday, recouping some recent losses, as industry data showed an unexpected drop in US inventories.
At 9:35 AM ET, the Brent contract rose 1.6% to $71.86 per barrel, while US crude oil (WTI) futures were trading 1.6% higher at $68.28 per barrel. barrel.
US data showed that US oil inventories fell 0.57 million barrels last week, compared with expectations for a rise of 2.3 million barrels.
Official data will be released later on Wednesday, and if this data matches the API numbers then it could indicate that supplies in the world's biggest fuel consumer were somewhat tight.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
