US open: Stocks slip amid mixed economic data

(Sharecast News) - Stocks on Wall Street were again trading lower on Thursday, as Meta Platforms joined Alphabet in underwhelming the market with quarterly earnings. Facebook and Instagram owner Meta beat analysts' forecasts - much like Alphabet - but failed to impress with its fourth-quarter guidance and comments about a "softening" ad market, sending its shares down by 6%.

The latest batch of economic data meanwhile was arguably a tad mixed when looking at the details of the reports.

Against that backdrop, as of 1529 BST the Dow Jones Industrials was drifting lower by 0.12% to 32,993.53, alongside a 0.53% drop for the S&P 500 to 4,165.15.

The Nasdaq Composite was faring worst, declining by 0.96% to 12,697.59.

Worth noting, the CBoE's VIX volatility index was up by 4.85% at 21.17.

Yet gold and oil futures were lower, as was the yield on benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasuries.

U.S. GDP growth hit an annualised pace of 4.9% during the third quarter, as household spending leapt higher (consensus: 4.0%).

That was up from 0.8% over the previous three months.

Furthermore, the core PCE price deflator slowed to 2.4% (consensus: 2.5%), its slowest pace of gains since the last quarter of 2019.

But Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics said such strength in consumption could not be sustained and was anticipating flat GDP growth in the fourth quarter.

Initial weekly jobless claims meanwhile rose by 10,000 to 210,000, as expected.

Durable goods orders surged by 4.7% month-on-month in September, but that was entirely the result - and more - of a near doubling in the often volatile category of orders for civilian aircraft.

On Friday, the much-anticipated personal consumption expenditures index - the Fed's preferred measure of inflation - was forecast to show that core inflation slowed to an annual rate of 3.7% in September from 3.9% in August.

Dow Jones - Risers

International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $142.36 3.85% Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $106.25 2.53% Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $22.07 1.82% Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $34.26 1.68% Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $166.60 1.14% Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $47.94 0.84% JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $141.38 0.70% 3M Co. (MMM) $89.90 0.57% Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $56.40 0.50% Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $298.17 0.48%

Dow Jones - Fallers

Nike Inc. (NKE) $100.75 -2.69% Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $332.86 -2.29% Visa Inc. (V) $232.04 -2.03% Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $51.65 -1.42% Chevron Corp. (CVX) $154.04 -1.17% Apple Inc. (AAPL) $169.11 -1.16% Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $242.62 -0.95% Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $195.84 -0.62% Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $528.36 -0.35% Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $80.33 -0.32%

S&P 500 - Risers

Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (WTW) $227.80 9.66% FMC Technologies Inc. (FTI) $21.42 7.45% American Tower Corp (Reit) (AMT) $172.40 6.47% Smith A O Corp. (AOS) $69.22 6.18% Rollins Inc. (ROL) $36.42 6.09% Ameriprise Financial Inc. (AMP) $324.98 5.81% Raymond James Fin Corp. (RJF) $97.10 5.74% Masco Corp. (MAS) $51.03 5.59% Flowserve Corp. (FLS) $37.24 5.23% O'Reilly Automotive Inc. (ORLY) $915.39 4.62%

S&P 500 - Fallers

Align Technology Inc. (ALGN) $197.15 -22.29% Whirlpool Corp. (WHR) $109.82 -12.57% Mattel Inc. (MAT) $17.87 -11.14% Hasbro Inc (HAS) $48.87 -10.74% LKQ Corporation (LKQ) $42.17 -10.13% Western Union Co. (WU) $11.73 -9.28% Harley-Davidson Inc. (HOG) $26.15 -9.26% Arista Networks Inc. (ANET) $170.87 -8.18% Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (EW) $63.01 -7.81% Meta Platforms Inc. (META) $281.59 -5.99%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers

O'Reilly Automotive Inc. (ORLY) $915.39 4.62% Microchip Technology Inc. (MCHP) $73.93 3.57% KLA-Tencor Corp. (KLAC) $469.65 3.26% Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) $600.62 2.96% Texas Instruments Inc (TXN) $145.90 2.90% Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) $163.79 2.50% Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) $133.23 2.40% Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $22.07 1.82% Skyworks Solutions Inc. (SWKS) $90.08 1.70% Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) $222.05 1.70%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers

Align Technology Inc. (ALGN) $197.15 -22.29% Hasbro Inc (HAS) $48.87 -10.74% Meta Platforms Inc. (META) $281.59 -5.99% Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) $40.37 -5.58% Idexx Laboratories Inc. (IDXX) $394.79 -4.34% DENTSPLY Sirona Inc. (XRAY) $30.55 -3.98% Qurate Retail Inc. (QRTEA) $0.44 -3.80% Alphabet Inc. Class A (GOOGL) $121.32 -3.42% Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOG) $122.39 -3.37% Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR) $409.56 -3.34%