U.S. stock indexes fell Wednesday morning, led by a slide in technology shares after behemoths Alphabet and Microsoft delivered a mixed picture of earnings, while longer-dated Treasury yields resumed their march higher ahead of inflation data on Friday and interest-rate decisions by the Federal Reserve next week.
The S&P 500 communication services sector XX:SP500.50, which includes high-profile names as Alphabet, Meta Platforms META, -1.85% and Netflix NFLX, +0.26%, slumped 4.6% on Wednesday, on track for its worst day since October 2022, according to FactSet data. Tim Urbanowicz, head of research and investment strategy at Innovator ETFs, said despite good news so far in the third-quarter earnings season, investors need to back up and remember they are in a macro driven market. “A Lot of the earnings news will take a backseat to the economic data,” he said in emailed comments on Wednesday.