US stock indices were all lower soon after Wednesday’s open. Investors are prepared for a critical batch of corporate earnings that comes against a backdrop of escalating hostilities between the US and Iran. Today's weakness comes after yesterday's strong session, which saw chip stocks tack on impressive gains. This helped lift the NASDAQ and S&P 500 by 1.3% and 0.9%, respectively.
Source: TN Trader
The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) surged 5.5% on Tuesday as chip stocks continued to recover following a two-day shakeout at the end of last week. But the SOXX was down 1% soon after the open, having bounced off earlier lows. Attention now turns to hyperscaler Alphabet, along with fellow 'Mag 7' constituent Tesla. Both announce quarterly results after tonight’s closing bell.
Alphabet’s report will be closely scrutinised for updates on its substantial artificial intelligence investments, while Tesla investors will be looking for progress on autonomous driving, robotics initiatives and vehicle delivery trends. There may be an extra buzz around Tesla given last month's record-breaking IPO of Elon Musk's other business, SpaceX.
SpaceX briefly dropped below $120 yesterday, well below its IPO price of $135. It was up a touch this morning, but then fell back into the red. Today's other significant earnings updates come from Philip Morris, GE Vernova, AT&T, Texas Instruments and Intel.
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