Dow Falls as Energy, Tech Stumble Despite Upbeat Economic Data By Investing.com

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – The Dow fell Friday, shrugging off upbeat economic data amid weakness in energy stocks following mixed quarterly results from oil majors ExxonMobil and Chevron .

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.58%, or 197 points, the S&P 500 was down 0.58%, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.48%.

Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) reported first-quarter results that topped Wall Street estimates as improving oil prices in the quarter bolstered growth. But its shares slipped nearly 2%.

Chevron (NYSE:CVX), meanwhile, swung to a first-quarter profit, but missed analysts expectations on both the top and bottom lines, sending its shares 3% lower.

Lower oil prices also weighed on energy as rising infections in India continue to muddy the outlook for crude demand.

Yet, despite the losses on the day, energy was the best performing sector for Q1.

“Higher oil prices and expectations for improving earnings for traditional brick and mortar stores led to greater returns within the energy and consumer discretionary sectors,” Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) said in a note.

Tech slipped even as Amazon rounded off this week’s wave of corporates earnings from the Fab 5 with better-than-expected results, but gave up some of its intraday gains.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) reported blowout quarterly profit that topped expectations underpinned by record profit for the quarter.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), meanwhile, fell nearly 1% after the European Commission accused it of antitrust actions against music rivals following a complaint from Spotify (NYSE:SPOT).

Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), meanwhile, fell more than 13% after its weaker second-quarter revenue guidance and slower growth offset in Q1 offset better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue.

Financials also weighed on the broader market as banks slipped on falling Treasury yields despite a raft of better-than-expected data showing an improvement in consumer spending and inflation.

This morning, consumer spending rose 4.2% in March, a tenth of a percentage point more than expected, according to Bloomberg, and the largest monthly increase since June.

“This puts consumption – and likely GDP – on track for double digit growth in Q2,” Jefferies (NYSE:JEF) said.

The price consumption index, the fed’s preferred measure of inflation, rose 0.5% in March, and 2.3% on an annualized basis, the most since August 2018. 

The latest data pointing to an increasing pace of inflation comes just days after the Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged and continued to suggest that rising price pressures would prove transitory.

In other news, Reddit-favorite Microvision (NASDAQ:MVIS) slumped 18% after missing expectations on both the top and bottom lines.