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Stock Market News For Jul 30, 2018

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Markets closed in the red on Friday, as poor earnings from tech giants led to huge selloffs. Unimpressive quarterly results from tech companies overshadowed strong economic data. The Nasdaq declined more than 1% after tech stocks posted losses for the second consecutive day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) declined 0.3%, to close at 25,451.06. The S&P 500 fell 0.7% to close at 2,818.82. The Nasdaq Composite Index closed at 7, 737.42, declining 1.5%. A total of 6.81 billion shares were traded on Friday, higher than the last 20-session average of 6.04 billion shares. Decliners outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by a 2.03-to-1 ratio. On Nasdaq, a 3.39-to-1 ratio favored declining issues.

How did the Benchmark Perform?

The Dow gave up 76.01 points. The S&P 500 shed 18.62 points, with tech stocks taking a hit. The Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK) declined 2%. Seven of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors ended in negative territory.

The tech heavy Nasdaq lost 114.77 points, its biggest decline in a month. Technology stocks suffered the most as a number of companies posted week quarterly results.

Shares of Intel Corporation (INTC - Free Report) declined 8.6%, while Twitter tumbled 20.6% after both the companies posted disappointing results. Shares of Facebook and Apple (AAPL - Free Report) also caused the decline, plunging 0.8% and 1.7%, respectively. Intel has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

For the week, the Nasdaq closed 1.1% lower, while the Dow and S&P 500 gained 1.6% and 0.6% respectively. Also, the Dow and S&P 500 posted their fourth straight weekly gains.

Tech Stocks at the Helm of Carnage

Tech stocks have helped markets time and again. However, Friday was the second consecutive day when tech stocks led to huge selloffs, as major companies posted disappointing results. Twitter was the biggest loser after the company reported that its number of active monthly users has fallen.

Also, Intel in its quarterly results announced delays on its next-generation chips.  This made investors jittery once again following disappointing results from the likes of Facebook and Netflix (NFLX - Free Report) .

Shares of Apple, which is scheduled to report earnings on Jul 31, also declined as a result of this. Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN - Free Report) was one of the few tech giants that gained as the company posted robust earnings. Shares of Amazon gained 0.5%.

U.S. Economy on Steady Growth Track

Data from Commerce Department showed that the U.S. economy grew at an annualized 4.1% in the second quarter, powered by government and consumer spending. This is also the fast growth pace in almost four years and shows the strength in the U.S. economy, although the figures came in below lofty expectations. However, the poor show by tech stocks overshadowed the robust growth figures

Weekly Round Up

The week started on a high with expectations of robust earnings from major tech companies. Moreover, higher bond yield helped lift financial stocks along with robust earnings from a spate of companies. Also, tech stocks gained initially on robust earnings expectations.

However, tech stocks led to huge selloffs in the later part of the week as major tech companies failed to post impressive results and missed expectations. This took a toll on markets as despite trade war fears easing and strong economic data from the government, failed to lift investors’ spirits.

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