Stocks are mostly in a holding pattern as investors await the Fed announcement this afternoon and Apple's (AAPL) earnings this evening. While expectations are virtually nil for any change in tone from the central bank and expectations are seen as low for Apple as well, the S&P is little changed and the Dow and Nasdaq are slipping a bit near noon in advance of both potentially market moving events.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the advance indicators report revealed a bigger than expected March widening in the goods trade deficit to a new all-time high of $90.6B.
The FOMC resumed its meeting and will announce its decision at 2 pm ET, to be followed by Chair Powell's press conference at 2:30 ET.
TOP NEWS: Class A shares of Alphabet (GOOGL) were 4% higher near noon after the tech giant reported much better than expected first quarter earnings and revenue, with revenue in its advertising, cloud, and traffic acquisition segments showing year-over-year growth in the quarter. CFO Ruth Porat said she is "very pleased" with the ongoing momentum in Google Cloud, and the company noted on its quarterly call that it saw "phenomenal growth" in its YouTube business. In addition, Alphabet said along with its quarterly report that its board authorized the repurchase of up to an additional $50B of Class C (GOOG) stock.
In other tech giant news, Microsoft (MSFT) shares were 3% lower near noon after the company reported upbeat third quarter results, with CEO Satya Nadella saying that digital adoption curves aren't slowing down. While the shares fell in after-hours trading yesterday and remain lower during the current session, several analysts raised their price targets on Microsoft, with Piper Sandler analyst Brent Bracelin saying the selloff presents a buying opportunity.
Shares of Boeing (BA) were also trading down 3% after the company reporting worse than expected core losses, with the planemaker saying it is continuing to make progress on the "safe return to service" of the 737 MAX globally. Boeing noted on its quarterly call that it continues to see passenger traffic returning to 2019 levels in 2023-2024 and that its 2021 financials hinge on a commercial market recovery.
Meanwhile, Starbucks (SBUX) shares fell 4% after the coffee giant reported lower than expected revenue for Q2, with the company saying on its quarterly call that resurgent COVID-19 restrictions in China hurt its quarterly results. Of note, Starbucks said it expects store visitation frequency to normalize in the second half of the year.
Additionally, Spotify (SPOT) shares declined 9% in New York trading after the audio streaming firm reported quarterly results, with monthly active users in the quarter growing 24% year-over-year. Of note, Spotify confirmed that it is raising prices for its subscription products in 12 additional markets.
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was MicroVision (MVIS), which rose 18% after completing the development of its A-Sample hardware and development platform featuring its long-range sensor platform. Also higher was Deutsche Bank (DB), which gained 11% after reporting quarterly results.
Among the notable losers was Spirit Airlines (SAVE), which declined 4% after Evercore ISI analyst Duane Pfennigwerth downgraded the stock to In Line from Outperform. Also lower were Pinterest (PINS) and Enphase (ENPH), which fell 13% and 15%, respectively, after reporting quarterly results.
INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was down 119.30, or 0.35%, to 33,865.63, the Nasdaq was down 27.92, or 0.20%, to 14,062.29, and the S&P 500 was up 1.56, or 0.04%, to 4,188.28.
Alphabet
+83.81 (+3.66%)
Alphabet
+93.69 (+4.06%)
Microsoft
-8.85 (-3.38%)
Boeing
-7.79 (-3.22%)
Starbucks
-4.3 (-3.70%)
Spotify
-26.335 (-8.98%)
MicroVision
+3.18 (+15.78%)
Deutsche Bank
+1.285 (+10.41%)
Spirit Airlines
-1.58 (-4.25%)
-10.105 (-13.04%)
Enphase Energy
-26.21 (-15.30%)