US STOCKS-Apple and Alphabet pull Wall Street lower

  • Reuters
  • Stock Market News
US STOCKS-Apple and Alphabet pull Wall Street lower
Credit: © Reuters.

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* Twitter plunges on dull second-quarter outlook

* Chevron down as profit drops on weaker refining margins

* U.S. consumer spending rebounds in March

* Indexes: Dow -0.59%, S&P 500 -0.72%, Nasdaq -0.85%

(Updates with afternoon trade)

By Noel Randewich and Shivani Kumaresan

April 30 (Reuters) - Wall Street dropped on Friday, with Apple, Alphabet and other tech-related companies dipping despite recent strong quarterly earnings reports.

A day after the S&P 500 closed at a record high, Apple AAPL.O , Google-parent Alphabet GOOGL.O and Facebook FB.O each fell more than 1%, giving back gains following upbeat quarterly reports this week.

Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O rose 0.4% after it posted record profit late on Thursday and signaled that consumers would keep spending in a growing U.S. economy. Amazon had been up over 2% earlier in the session. Inc TWTR.N plunged 14% after it offered a tepid revenue forecast for the second quarter, saying user growth could slow as the boost seen during the pandemic fizzles. megacap favorites posted largely strong earnings in the first quarter, their shares have struggled to maintain the upward trajectory that many had coming into reporting season.

"There is a sense that maybe next quarter is as good as it's going to get, and we're going to roll over, particularly among the Nasdaq stocks and Big Tech stocks that benefited from the pandemic," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Wealth Advisors in Palm Beach, Florida.

Most of the 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes were lower, with technology .SPLRCT and materials .SPLRCM down more than 1%, while energy .SPNY dropped 2.2%.

Of the 303 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported so far, 87.1% have topped analysts' earnings estimates, with Refinitiv IBES data now predicting a 46.3% jump in profit growth.

Data on Friday showed U.S. consumer spending rebounded in March amid a surge in income as households received additional COVID-19 pandemic relief money from the government. Friday's weakness, the Nasdaq .IXIC is set for six consecutive months of gains, boosted by impressive results from big technology companies. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI is on course to end in the positive territory for three months in a row.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was down 0.59% at 33,859.8 points, while the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.72% to 4,180.97.

The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 0.85% to 13,963.28.

Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX ) CVX.N shed more than 3% after its first-quarter profit fell 29%, hit by weaker refining margins and production losses. Inc ABBV.N rose 0.6% after it reported strong results and raised its 2021 earnings forecast, helped by demand for its rheumatoid arthritis drug in the United States.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 2.12-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and for a 1.98-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 44 new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 52 new highs and 26 new lows.

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