Stock Market Today: Dow Futures Fall After Poor Meta, Microsoft Earnings

How stock index futures are traded:

S&P 500 futures are down 0.8%.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 0.6%.

Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1.1%.

On WednesdayThe Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 92 points, or 0.22%, to 42,142, the S&P 500 fell 19 points, or 0.33%, to 5,814 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 105 points, or 0.56%, to 18608.

Futures are off to a weak start for Wall Street trading as poor earnings from Meta Platforms and Microsoft call into question valuations for the market’s dominant mega-cap tech sector.

“There is a general risk in the markets,” says Kathleen Brooks, director of research at XTB.

“When it comes to AI, the market wants to see stellar growth rates, and there is some concern about the slowdown in Microsoft’s generative AI business… In general, big tech companies are sensitive to any cracks in the AI narrative and are ripe for a sell-off – this good result in recent weeks,” adds Brooks.

Investor sentiment is also likely to be weighed down by the upcoming US elections on November 5th. The CBOE VIX, a volatility gauge known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, jumped 7.3% to 21.84.