In early pre-market action MSFT is trading at $236.8 down $5.24 (-2.16%) and the Nasdaq 100 futures are off 1.18%.
From MarketWatch January 25:
MARKET SNAPSHOTU.S. stocks were on course for a soft open after a warning on demand by Microsoft hit sentiment.
How are stock-index futures trading
- S&P 500 futures dipped 19.5 points, or 0.4% to 4013
- Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 120 points, or 0.3% to 33705
- Nasdaq 100 futures fell 91 points, or 0.7% to 11819
On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 104 points, or 0.31%, to 33733, the S&P 500 declined 3 points, or 0.07%, to 4016.95, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 30 points, or 0.27%, to 11334.
What’s driving markets
As investors wait for next week’s Federal Reserve interest rate decision — and Fed officials keep quiet until then — the monetary policy vacuum allows for a sharper focus on the fourth quarter corporate earnings season.
And, unfortunately for equity bulls, the latest important company update has not been taken well by the market.
Technology bellwether Microsoft caused a sell-off in index futures after the software group, following Tuesday’s closing bell, delivered mostly better-than-expected figures but warned of softening demand for its cloud services amid an economic slowdown.
Shares in Amazon Microsoft’s main rival in cloud services, were also set to open lower on Wednesday.
The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite index is up 8.3% for the year to date as investors made bets some of the big cash-generative names had been sold down too much in the wake of the 2022 Fed-induced bear market.
Now, the Microsoft comments may cause tech bulls to call that rally into question....
....MUCH MORE
