By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are seen opening lower Thursday, with the technology-heavy Nasdaq index particularly hard hit on the back of a disappointing quarterly report from Facebook-owner Meta Platforms.
At 7:05 AM ET (1205 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was down 125 points, or 0.4%, S&P 500 Futures traded 55 points, or 1.2%, lower and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 350 points, or 2.3%.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB) stock slumped over 20% in premarket trade after the technology conglomerate, which includes Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp in its stable, missed expectations with its fourth-quarter earnings, including reporting a first-ever decline in global daily active users, and posted a weaker-than-expected forecast.
Other social media names, including Snap (NYSE:SNAP) and Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), followed suit, posting premarket hefty losses, while streaming service Spotify (NYSE:SPOT) also traded sharply lower after reporting a slowdown in premium subscriber growth.
The earnings deluge continues Thursday, with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) set to report earnings after the close. The e-commerce giant will be the last of the FAANG group of megacap stocks to report its fourth quarter, and is seen posting $137.75 billion in revenue, which would be 9.7% above 2020's number.
Other companies scheduled to release quarterly numbers Thursday include Snap (NYSE:SNAP), Honeywell (NASDAQ:HON), Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY), Merck (NYSE:MRK), ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) and Cigna (NYSE:CI).
Thursday’s weaker tone mean the major Wall Street indices are set to break a four-day winning streak. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average closed more than 220 points, or 0.6%, higher, while the broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.9% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.5%.
The labor market will also remain in focus Thursday in the form of the weekly initial jobless claims data, at 8:30 AM ET (1330 GMT), especially after Wednesday’s ADP jobs number surprised to the downside with a meaningful drop in payrolls.
While jobless claims have drifted towards 50-year lows in recent months, the numbers have been elevated over the last three weeks, perhaps a reflection of the rising number of Omicron-related infections.
Over in Europe, the Bank of England raised interest rates for the second time in less than two months, while the European Central Bank will hold a press conference at 8:30 AM ET after its monetary policy meeting ends.
Oil prices eased back Thursday but remained near multi-year highs, supported by tight global supply as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia agreed to continue a policy of only limited increases in output.
Additionally, U.S. crude stockpiles fell by 1 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, against expectations for an increase.
By 7:05 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 1.3% lower at $87.15 a barrel, while the Brent contract fell 1.3% to $88.29. Both benchmarks hit their highest levels since October 2014 last week.
Additionally, gold futures fell 0.5% to $1,801.95/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower at 1.1293.