Dow closes nearly 250 points lower, Nasdaq sheds 1% as Alphabet shares slide: Live updates

Stocks closed lower Thursday, giving up early advances as concerns over the Federal Reserve’s future moves on monetary policy offset excitement around the latest batch of corporate earnings.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 249.13 points, or 0.73%, to close at 33,699.88. The S&P 500 slid 0.9% to end at 4,081.50. The Nasdaq Composite saw the greatest dip of the three, dropping 1.02% to end the session at 11,789.58.

“Wall Street couldn’t keep the upbeat mood,” said Ed Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda. “Some traders placed bets that the Fed will have to do a lot more tightening than what Wall Street is pricing in.”

Google-parent Alphabet slid more than 4% as investors grew concerned around rising competition in the artificial intelligence space. A 3% decline in Meta also dragged on the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite.

Investors recently have been monitoring the Fed’s commentary as they search for clues on future policy moves following last week’s interest rate hike of 25 basis points. On Tuesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that inflation was cooling but there was still a long way to go.

At the same time, Wall Street is in the middle of earnings season. Investors seek insight on how companies have fared amid high inflation and how they expect to perform going forward. Traders initially began the day bidding prices higher after positive earnings from consumer bellwethers Walt Disney and PepsiCo.

Disney shares closed more than 1% lower. Earlier, the stock popped after the entertainment giant posted smaller-than-expected subscriber losses at its streaming service along with earnings and revenue that beat analysts’ estimates. CEO Bob Iger said Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” that he was only expecting to stay in the role for two years. Meanwhile, activist investor Nelson Peltz said he was ending a proxy battle after the company unveiled a restructuring plan that included 7,000 layoffs and a reorganization of its divisions.

PepsiCo advanced nearly 1% on the back of fourth-quarter earnings that came in above Wall Street expectations.

But despite the latest beats, Wall Street has considered this earnings season lackluster. Nearly 70% of the approximately two-thirds of S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far have beaten analysts’ expectations, FactSet data shows. That beat rate is below a three-year average of 79%, according to data from The Earnings Scout.