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* IBM reaches a two-month minimum in quarterly revenue loss
* Intel leaves behind to avoid outsourcing
* Yellen wins unanimous Senate panel vote on Treasury
* Dow 0.39%, S&P 500 0.24%, Nasdaq 0.11% (add comments; update market prices; add New York data line; change line)
NEW YORK, Jan. 22 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s major indices fell on Friday, dragged down by Intel and IBM’s blue technology losses after quarterly results as hopes for economic reopening fall complete in the coming months.
IBM Corp. fell 9.83% and was the main drag on the Dow Jones industrial average after losing quarterly revenue estimates, hurt by a rare drop in sales of its software unit.
Intel Corp lost 8.93% as post-earnings comments from new CEO Pat Gelsinger suggested a lack of a strong embrace of outsourcing.
“The challenge for the (tech) industry at this point in the earnings season is how much of its profit growth expectations were withdrawn in 2020 and might not be available in 2021,” said strategist Rob Haworth of senior investment from US Bank Wealth Management in Seattle.
However, losses in the technology sector were offset by gains for Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc., which kept declines in major U.S. stock indices under control.
Shares of energy, financial and industrial and consumer discretion, which have been one of the best-performing sectors since the U.S. election in November, fell further on Friday.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq reduced some losses after the opening bell, as data showed that U.S. manufacturing activity rose surprisingly to its highest level in more than 13-1 / 2 years. in early January, in contrast to a disappointing result in the data of the purchasing manager in Europe before.
At 14:18 ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 121.68 points, or 0.39%, to 31,054.33, the S&P 500 lost 9.35 points, or 0.24%, to 3,843 , 72 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 14.42 points, or 0.11%, to 13,516.49.
Despite the weakness, the top three indices were set for weekly gains, with a high-tech Nasdaq crawl for its best weekly performance since Nov. 6, as investors rallied on Alphabet Inc., Apple Inc. and Amazon. .com Inc. in anticipation of its earnings reports. in the coming weeks.
As stock valuations have not approached levels since the Dotcom era, some market participants said the new variants of COVID-19 and the hiccup in vaccine launching pose short-term risks.
On Thursday, at a White House event, President Joe Biden said the death toll from the pandemic in the U.S. is likely to exceed 500,000 next month.
“If we are forced to keep the economy closed and it takes longer than we want to get through vaccinations and coronavirus vaccines, this will be a little harder on the market than people seem to anticipate,” he said. Haworth.
The Senate Finance Committee unanimously approved the appointment of Janet Yellen as the first woman Secretary of the Treasury, indicating that she would easily win the full approval of the Senate.
Declining problems outperformed NYSE advances by 1.54 to 1; on the Nasdaq, a ratio of 1.21 to 1 favored declines.
The S&P 500 recorded 12 new highs of 52 weeks and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 128 new highs and 6 new lows.
Echo Wang reports in New York; Additional reports from Devik Jain and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Edited by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Anil D’Silva and Diane Craft