US stocks close mixed on earnings reports
Wall Street stocks were mixed Thursday as markets took in a range of company earnings, with the Nasdaq slumping on weak results from Facebook parent Meta while the Dow ended higher. The movements came after Meta reported a plunge in its quarterly profits, dragging the firm's shares 24.6 percent lower. Google parent Alphabet and Microsoft had earlier reported weak earnings as well, and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index closed 1.6 percent down to 10,793. But the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.6 percent at 32,033, helped by a better-than-expected performance from companies such as McDonald's and Caterpillar. The broad-based S&P 500 Index lost 0.6 percent to 3,807. This came on the back of data showing that the US economy expanded 2.6 percent in the third quarter, although economists warned of a less rosy outlook ahead with consumer spending softening and business investment weakening. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note slid to 3.94 percent, falling below the 4 percent threshold, on hopes that the Federal Reserve will soon pivot from its policy of aggressive interest rate hikes aimed at countering inflation. A smaller-than-expected rate hike Wednesday from the Bank of Canada also boosted hopes for a similar shift soon from the Fed. (AFP)