The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) saw a minor decline of 0.15% on Wednesday, October 25, 2023, with a more significant downturn observed in the S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite. The larger indexes were adversely affected by Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)'s slower cloud growth, which resulted in a 9% drop in its stock value. In stark contrast, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)'s Azure cloud business reported strong performance, leading to a nearly 13% beat in fiscal Q1 2024 earnings consensus and prompting a 4.5% rise in its stock value.
Several other DJIA components including Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), 3M, Visa (NYSE:V), and Verizon (NYSE:VZ) also reported successful quarters. 3M raised its full-year earnings outlook following a 14% earnings beat for Q3. Verizon upgraded its free cash flow guidance to $18 billion for the current fiscal year. Visa announced a $25 billion buyback policy after narrowly surpassing market consensus for both earnings and revenue for the quarter. Coca-Cola reported organic sales growth due to increased pricing power and recorded revenue growth of 24% in Latin America from the previous year.
Despite these positive earnings reports, the DJIA is forecasted to experience further losses as it has been on a downward trend since July and is currently trading below the 4-week Simple Moving Average (SMA). The upcoming Preliminary US GDP data for Q3 and Core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) data could potentially influence the DJIA's trajectory.
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