6.30am: Tesla and Boeing due to report
Wall Street is likely to open lower on Wednesday as traders prepare for more corporate earnings reports after tech giant Microsoft turned in a mixed performance, with second-quarter earnings beating expectations but revenue falling short.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) declined 0.5% in pre-market trading, while those for the broader S&P 500 index dropped 0.7%, and contracts for the Nasdaq-100 fell 1.1%.
Shares of software giant Microsoft Corp, which reported after the closing bell on Tuesday, were down 2.2% in after-hours trading. While the final quarter of 2022 was more robust than anticipated, AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould noted there is a clear sign of deceleration in the company’s Azure cloud computing arm.
“Microsoft, like several of its rivals, had already sent a clear message about its view on the immediate outlook by announcing large job cuts – it’s not really a surprise to see earnings guidance trimmed accordingly,” Mould commented.
“A gloomy prognosis on its immediate prospects from Microsoft won’t have helped the market’s mood and neither will Johnson & Johnson’s warnings of a continued impact from inflation,” he added.
Tesla Inc’s earnings and outlook statement, due after the close today, will provide investors with more insight into the electric vehicles maker’s decision to cut prices to boost to sales, and the implications for earnings, said Mould. Boeing is also scheduled to report 4Q earnings today, before the market opens
Economic data will also be in focus later this week. “Thursday’s fourth quarter GDP figures for the US could either reinforce or blow-up expectations for a soft landing for the American economy, with core inflation numbers on Friday helping to provide some insight into the Federal Reserve’s decision-making ahead of its crunch meeting next week,” Mould said.