US stocks retreat as mixed earnings add to angst
Wall Street stocks fell early on Wednesday as another round of lacklustre quarterly earnings added to investor caution after a strong start to 2023. Aviation giant Boeing reported a quarterly loss on revenues that missed analyst estimates while in tech, Microsoft offered a disappointing outlook on its Azure cloud computing business. Microsoft's Azure forecast "laid bare an understanding that growth is slowing and that business conditions have gotten more challenging," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare. "Investors are grappling with valuation concerns and the notion that the market might have gotten ahead of itself with the January rally effort," he added. About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones was down 0.7 percent at 33,511. The S&P 500 shed 1.0 percent to 3,975, while the Nasdaq dropped 1.6 percent to 11,156. Wednesday's early losses comes on the heels of a mixed session on Tuesday as investors digested an uneven set of results from American corporate giants including Verizon and 3M. (AFP)