U.S. stocks closed Wednesday lower as another bout of earnings results hit traders’ desks and Wall Street weighed the outlook for interest rates after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled more hikes may be needed than markets are pricing in.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) declined 1.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJ) shed roughly 200 points or 0.6%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) tumbled 1.7%.
In specific stock moves, shares of Alphabet (GOOG) tanked 7.4% after the Google parent revealed a batch of new AI-powered features for its Search, Maps, and Lens apps and a presentation of the technology misfired.
The announcement came just one day after Microsoft (MSFT) unveiled a new version of its Bing search engine running on a more powerful version of OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT natural language AI technology. Shares of Microsoft closed down 0.3% after paring gains from earlier in the day.
Activision Blizzard (ATVI) shares were down 3.6% after the UK’s antitrust regulator raised competition concerns about Microsoft’s proposed $69 billion purchase of the “Call of Duty” maker.
Under Armor (UA) reversed an advance and slid 8.4% in the second half of the trading day as investors’ focus shifted from the athletic apparel retailer lifting its profit forecast too high discounts and bloated inventories.
Uber’s (UBER) stock climbed 5.5% after earnings for the last three months of 2022 beat expectations and CEO Dara Khosrow Shahi said the company was focused on achieving profitability in 2023 as post-pandemic demand for ride-hailing recovers.
Shares of Chipotle (CMG) sank 5% after the burrito maker’s earnings were disappointing as higher costs for tortillas, dairy, beans, and rice, as well as labor costs, ate into profitability.
CVS Health (CVS) shares rose nearly 3.5% after the pharmacy chain announced it has agreed to buy Oak Street Health in a $10.6 billion deal, marking its second big acquisition in the healthcare space in the past two years.