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Investing.com – The Dow fell on Thursday as a slide in technology stocks overshadowed mostly bullish earnings at a time when rising U.S. Covid-19 cases shows no sign of letting up.
The S&P 500 lost 0.34%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.73% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.5%, or 135 points.
Quarterly results from banks continued to pour in, with Morgan Stanley and Bank of America posting better-than-expected earnings.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) rose 2.5% after reporting earnings and revenue that beat consensus estimates, led by strong performance in its trading division.
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) fell 2.7% despite delivering a beat on the top and bottom lines.
Both banks flagged an increase in loan loss provisions to protect against a wave of potential client defaults.
Elsewhere on the earnings front, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) reported results that topped estimates as growth in its pharmaceutical business softened the blow from coronavirus-led disruptions. Its shares traded ended up 0.69%.
The latest round of earnings provided investors with insight into the impact of the virus, which continues to spread in the U.S., with cases rising to 3.53 million.
In tech, meanwhile, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), the so-called Fab 5, making up about 40% of the Nasdaq Index, dragged the broader sector down.
Energy cut its gains on the day, as oil prices fell after OPEC and its allies agreed to rein in production cuts.
On the economic front, retail sales for June topped estimates, while higher-than-forecast U.S. weekly jobless claims stoked worries over whether the recent strength in the labor market was losing steam.
The recent data does “not bode well for improvement [in jobless claims] in July anywhere near what we saw in May and June,” Jefferies (NYSE:JEF) said.
Elsewhere, Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) fell 1.1% after accounts belonging to prominent handles were hacked on Wednesday.
