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Investing.com – The Dow moved off lows Thursday, but remained under pressure, paced by a slump in Walmart on mixed quarterly results and an unexpected wobble in the labor market.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.25%, or 78 points. The S&P 500 was down 0.27%, while the Nasdaq Composite slumped 0.45%.
Walmart (NYSE:WMT) fell 6% after missing fourth-quarter EPS estimates and forecasting soft EPS, income and sales in fiscal 2022, citing the impact of anticipated divestitures.
Sentiment on stocks were also hurt by an unexpected climb in weekly jobless claims as adverse weather in recent weeks in parts of the U.S. held back hiring activity.
“Major snowstorms have hit various areas across the country over the last few weeks … We often see backups in claims due to extreme weather, so even though claims are starting from a high level, the current situation is otherwise no different from what we have seen in history,” Jefferies (NYSE:JEF) said.
In the broader market, technology and energy also added fuel to downside momentum.
Energy stocks fell 2% as the big freeze across Texas halted activity for energy companies. Oil prices, meanwhile, reversed gains to settle 1% lower despite data showing a larger than expected draw in weekly U.S. crude stockpiles.
Crude inventories declined by 7.258 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Thursday. That was steeper than the 2.43 million barrels drop analysts had expected.
Technology, meanwhile, remained under pressure for the second straight day, with Facebook in the spotlight.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) fell more than 1% as the social media blocked news in Australia after refusing to cave in to the country’s demands that tech giants pay for news content on their platforms. Alphabet-parent Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), however, agreed to pay to publish content produced by News Corporation.
Twilio (NYSE:TWLO) proved to be a bright spot in tech, rising 8% after reporting blowout earnings and revenue as the rapid pace of digital transformation continued.
“The company is benefiting from expedited digital transformation activity (re-accelerating messaging growth), robust adoption of new use cases (telehealth) and products (Flex video), rising G2K traction, and a gradual recovery in the worst-impacted pandemic verticals,” Oppenheimer said in a note.
Tilray (NASDAQ:TLRY) fell 10%, as Stifel’s negative take on the company as a standalone business offset fourth-quarter results that topped analysts estimates. Stifel said the combined entity of a Tilray-Aphria (TSX:APHA) merger would likely present a more compelling case for the company.
