Wall St set to drop as Meta, Microsoft cost warnings highlight AI trade risks
Meta Platforms, Microsoft drag megacaps lower
Uber, Estee Lauder fall after results
September PCE data in-line with estimates
VIX rises to over three-week high
Futures down: Dow 0.52%, S&P 500 0.64%, Nasdaq 0.67%
Updated at 8:51 a.m. ET
By Lisa Pauline Mattackal
Oct 31 (Reuters) -Wall Street was set to open lower on Thursday as warnings from Meta Platforms and Microsoft about rising AI costs sobered some of the buzz around megacap stocks, which have been the market's primary driver this year.
Shares of Facebook-owner Meta META.O dipped 1.4% and Microsoft MSFT.O fell 3.5% in premarket trading, despite both companies beating earnings estimates in results reported after the bell on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation metric, rose 0.2% in September, in-line with economists' expectation and supporting bets of a gradual easing of monetary policy by the U.S. central bank.
"Investors are pondering results from Microsoft and Meta more than the economic news," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities.
"Still, the inflationnews could up the chances the Fed pauses next week. That could be on investors' mind and cause some more negativity in the medium term."
Data from the labor department showed the number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment fell to a more than expected 216,000 claims last week as distortions from hurricanes faded. Monthly nonfarm payrolls data is due on Friday.
Meta warned of "significant acceleration" in AI infrastructure investments. Microsoft predicted slower growth in its Azure cloud business, signaling that the company's already hefty AI investments were not enough to keep pace with capacity constraints.
The other so-called Magnificent Seven stocks also slipped, with Nvidia NVDA.O losing 1.1% and Alphabet GOOGL.O down 0.3%, giving up some gains after soaring in the previous session following upbeat results.
Amazon.com AMZN.O lost 1.3% and Apple AAPL.O dipped 0.1% ahead of quarterly results from both, due after market close.
Although betting on AI-driven tech stocks propelled Wall Street to record highs this year, investor exuberance has meant stocks are trading at incredibly expensive valuations. Meta and Microsoft's warnings point to the challenges companies face in pleasing investors.
"The market is unforgiving of any AI-related company that fails to significantly outperform," said Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell.
"Metais the latest stock to feel the wrath of investors, despite extending its track record of doing better than analyst forecasts on key financial measures."
S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down 37.75 points, or 0.64%. Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 dropped 138.5 points, or 0.67% and Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 fell 220 points, or 0.52%
The VIX .VIX, Wall Street's "fear gauge", rose to a more than three-week high as investors brace for more volatility from corporate results, the upcoming U.S. presidential election and the central bank's November meeting in the next few weeks.
The benchmark index is set for its sixth straight month of gains in October, and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC is set to rise over 2%, though the Dow .DJI is on track to decline slightly.
In results-driven moves, e-commercefirm eBay EBAY.O fell 5.7% following downbeat revenue forecasts, while trading platform Robinhood HOOD.O slumped 9.1% after its third-quarter earnings missed expectations.
Uber Technologies UBER.N shares dropped 8.2% after the companyforecast fourth-quarter gross bookings below expectations.
Estee Lauder plummeted 23.8% after the cosmetics company withdrew 2025 annual forecasts and cut its dividend.
Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported results so far, 77.4% have beaten analysts expectations, about in line with the 79% average beat rate of the past four quarters as per LSEG data as of Wednesday.
Reporting by Lisa Mattackal and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
