US stocks dragged down by earnings, Middle East fears
US markets finished lower on Thursday despite strong US economic data as markets digested mixed earnings and monitored the crisis in the Middle East. US gross domestic product growth came in at an annual rate of 4.9 percent for the July to September period, the fastest since late-2021. But markets shrugged off the report, viewing it as a sign the US economy is bound to slow down. The sense is "that's it's as good as it's going to get," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare. "There's anecdotal evidence that growth will be slowing." The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.8 percent at 32,784. The S&P 500 shed 1.2 percent to 4,137, while the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.8 percent to 12,595. A tidal wave of earnings news produced mixed reactions in the market, with toymakers Hasbro and Mattel diving and drugmaker Merck and IBM pushing higher. Facebook parent Meta Platforms fell 3.7 percent as the company warned of "volatility" in the advertising market, offsetting a more than doubling in quarterly profit. The poor market response to results from Meta and other companies that have led the market in 2023 such as Google parent Alphabet and Tesla has contributed to investor unease, said O'Hare. "There (is) no real leadership" in the market, he said. (AFP)