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Investing.com – The S&P 500 fell Wednesday as tech stocks’ attempt to find a bottom faded, and bank stocks continued to struggle following mostly underwhelming quarterly results.
The S&P 500 fell 1%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 1%, or 339 points, the Nasdaq lost 1.2%.
Technology, which has led the weakness in the broader market, gave up its intraday gains even as U.S. Treasury yields took a breather, with 10-year easing from two-year highs, despite growing expectations for aggressive Fed action.
“Given the fast-changing Fed rhetoric and inflation trends that remain stubbornly high, we are increasing our rate hike expectation from two to four next year. Our 2022 year-end federal funds rate target is now 1.00%–1.25%,” Wells Fargo said in a note.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB), and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) ended above the flatline, while Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) slipped.
Apple is set to kick off earnings for big tech next week, with analysts on Wall Street touting a strong quarter of growth for the tech giant’s services business, powered by continued growth its App Store.
Noting industry data from researcher Sensor Tower, {{0| Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) said it expected App Store sales to have grown 12% in fiscal first quarter compared with the same period a year ago.
Communication services was also among the biggest sector gainers, led by video game stocks in the wake of Microsoft’s deal to buy Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI).
Take-Two Interactive Software (NASDAQ:TTWO) and Electronic Arts Inc (NASDAQ:EA) led the pack, with the latter receiving an upgrade from Atlantic Equities to overweight from buy, with a price target of $160 target price.
Banking stocks, meanwhile, continued to slip, keeping the broader financials in red as gains in Morgan Stanley and Bank of America on better-than-expected third-quarter earnings was overshadowed by a slump in regional banking stocks.
U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) fell more than 7% after reporting fourth-quarter earnings that fell short of expectations as lower net interest margin weighed on performance.
State Street (NYSE:STT) slipped more than 7% despite reporting a beat on both the top and bottom lines.
Energy was also a drag on the broader market as oil prices gave up some gains after surging on news of supply disruptions following an explosion at an oil pipeline that transports up to 450,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Iraq to Turkey.
In other news, SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ:SOFI) received regulatory approval to become a bank holding company, sending its shares about 14% higher.
