US markets end deeply in red as disappointing earnings news

04 Feb 2022 Evaluate

The US markets ended deeply in red on Thursday as disappointing earnings news and weak revenue guidance from Facebook parent Meta triggered widespread selling. A steep drop by Meta (FB) weighed on the tech sector, with the Facebook parent plunging nearly 27 percent, and hitting its lowest intraday level in well over a year. Meta reeled under pressure after the social media giant reported weaker than expected fourth quarter earnings and provided disappointing revenue guidance for the current quarter. Several other social media stocks, including Snap and Twitter, tumbled as well. Not so encouraging earnings updates from several other companies, including Honeywell (down more than 7 percent) and Spotify (down nearly 17 percent), also weighed on sentiment.

On the economic data, the Labor Department released a report showing a modest decrease by first-time claims for US unemployment benefits in the week ended January 29th. The report showed initial jobless claims dipped to 238,000, a decrease of 23,000 from the previous week's revised level of 261,000. Street had expected jobless claims to edge down to 245,000 from the 260,000 originally reported for the previous week. Meanwhile, the Institute for Supply Management released a separate report showing a continued slowdown in the pace of growth in US service sector activity in the month of January. The ISM said its services PMI dipped to 59.9 in January after slumping to 62.3 in December, although a reading above 50 still indicates growth. Street had expected the index to drop to 59.5.

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 518.17 points or 1.45 percent to 35,111.16, Nasdaq dropped 538.73 points or 3.74 percent to 13,878.82 and S&P 500 was down by 111.94 points or 2.44 percent to 4,477.44. 

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