© Reuters
Investing.com — U.S. stocks are falling in choppy trading after a hotter than expected report on third quarter economic output as corporate earnings continue to roll in.
At 11:11 ET (15:11 GMT), the was down 37 points or 0.1%, while the dropped 0.4% and the fell 0.9%.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 2.4% on Wednesday, recording its worst day since February, while the broad-based S&P dropped 1.4% and the blue chip Dow fell 0.3%.
Third quarter U.S. GDP in focus
Third quarter came in at a hotter than expected 4.9% for the third quarter from the previous quarter. At the expected 4.3%, it would have been the fastest growth since the fourth quarter of 2021, and far sharper than the 2.1% pace seen in the April-June quarter.
In addition, new of 210,000 last week were slightly higher than the expected 208,000 and up from the prior week. And rose 1.1% in September from the prior month, a turnaround from the decline of 7.1% the month before.
Amazon takes the earnings lead
The earnings deluge continues Thursday, with results from Amazon (NASDAQ:) expected after the closing bell.
The e-commerce and cloud computing giant is expected to report earnings per share of 58 cents on revenue of $141.5 billion.
Investors will look for signs that Amazon’s aggressive expansion of same-day delivery services helped increase its third-quarter profit margin by spurring shoppers to place more frequent and bigger orders.
Southwest Airlines (NYSE:) met expectations for profit and said it would slow capacity growth in 2024. Shares fell 0.5%. United Parcel Service (NYSE:) fell slightly below expectations for revenue, and shares were down 4%.
Meta Platforms disappoints on revenue guidance
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:) beat expectations for third-quarter profit and revenue, helped by an austerity drive and a recovery in digital advertising ahead of the holiday season.
However, Meta’s stock fell more than 3% as investors fretted over the company’s guidance for the fourth quarter revenue, with the $38.3 billion estimate coming in 1.6% below expectations.
Oil slips on worries over European demand
Crude prices edged lower Thursday, giving up some of the previous session’s gains as U.S. oil stocks rose while traders continued to focus on developments in the Israel-Hamas war.
U.S. climbed by 1.4 million barrels last week, according to data from the Energy Information Administration, released Wednesday, pointing to weakening demand at the world’s largest consumer.
However, trading remains volatile, as traders struggle to gauge whether the war would escalate and disrupt crude supplies in the oil-rich Middle East region.
(Oliver Gray contributed to this item.)
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