Nasdaq Slides, Under Pressure From Amazon

By Riva Gold and Corrie Driebusch 
   -- The Nasdaq Composite extends losses after Amazon results 
 
   -- European stocks near three-month lows; Asia shares drop 
 
   -- U.S. growth figures confirmed a brighter second quarter 

The Nasdaq Composite extended declines Friday, as downbeat results from internet retailing giant Amazon.com dragged down the index.

The moves came after a selloff in technology shares pressured major indexes Thursday, helping to put the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 on pace for weekly declines.

Shares of Amazon.com dropped 1.9% after its quarterly profit fell 77%, adding to the downbeat tone around other consumer and tech companies. Starbucks shares fell 9.6% after the company's earnings fell short of analyst expectations, while Goodyear Tire & Rubber declined 8.5% after the tire maker cut its profit outlook for the year.

Consumer sectors were the worst performers in the S&P 500, which fell 0.2% in recent trading. The Nasdaq Composite declined 0.1%.

Tech companies stabilized a bit after big declines Thursday, though they were still on track for a 0.6% weekly decline in the S&P 500. Nonetheless, the sector remains up roughly 22% year-to-date.

"There's been such an enormous run-up in tech that these stocks are vulnerable to any disappointment," said Russ Koesterich, co-portfolio manager of the BlackRock Global Allocation Fund. The question now is if investors sell their positions in tech shares, into what assets or sectors will they move that money, he added.

Meanwhile the Dow Jones Industrial Average bounced around the flatline. The blue-chip index, which tends to swing less on moves in tech shares than the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, remains on track for a 1% weekly gain.

The dollar edged lower Friday after data showed U.S. economic growth picked up in the second quarter but inflation remained soft. The Commerce Department said gross domestic product, a broad measure of goods and services produced in the U.S., rose at a 2.6% annual rate in the second quarter. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected an increase of 2.7%.

The Fed's preferred inflation gauge, the price index for personal-consumption expenditures, rose at a rate of 0.3% during the period.

The WSJ Dollar Index, which measures the U.S. currency against 16 others, declined 0.4%. U.S. government bonds strengthened, sending the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note down to 2.294%, according to Tradeweb, from 2.312% on Thursday.

The second-quarter pickup in growth follows a stumble in the first three months of the year, when GDP grew at a 1.2% pace. Expectations for solid growth in the second quarter climbed heading into Friday as data on U.S. factories and jobs offered encouraging signals on the U.S. economy.

In Europe and Asia, stocks were dragged down by declines in tech stocks.

The Stoxx Europe 600 fell 1% -- marking its lowest close since April. Europe's technology sector shed 1.3% on Friday, while Japan's Nikkei Stock Average and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index each fell 0.6% amid pressure on the sector.

Write to Riva Gold at [e-mail] and Corrie Driebusch at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 28, 2017 14:36 ET (18:36 GMT)

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