Apple and Alphabet pull Wall Street lower By Reuters

By Noel Randewich and Shivani Kumaresan

(Reuters) – Wall Street dropped on Friday, with Apple (NASDAQ:), Alphabet (NASDAQ:) and other tech-related companies dipping despite recent strong quarterly earnings reports.

A day after the closed at a record high, Apple, Google-parent Alphabet and Facebook (NASDAQ:) each fell more than 1%, giving back gains following upbeat quarterly reports this week.

Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:) rose 0.4% after it posted record profit late on Thursday and signaled that consumers would keep spending in a growing U.S. economy. Amazon had been up over 2% earlier in the session.

Twitter Inc (NYSE:) plunged 14% after it offered a tepid revenue forecast for the second quarter, saying user growth could slow as the boost seen during the pandemic fizzles.

While megacap favorites posted largely strong earnings in the first quarter, their shares have struggled to maintain the upward trajectory that many had coming into reporting season.

“There is a sense that maybe next quarter is as good as it’s going to get, and we’re going to roll over, particularly among the Nasdaq stocks and Big Tech stocks that benefited from the pandemic,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Wealth Advisors in Palm Beach, Florida.

Most of the 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes were lower, with technology and materials down more than 1%, while energy dropped 2.2%.

Of the 303 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported so far, 87.1% have topped analysts’ earnings estimates, with Refinitiv IBES data now predicting a 46.3% jump in profit growth.

Data on Friday showed U.S. consumer spending rebounded in March amid a surge in income as households received additional COVID-19 pandemic relief money from the government.

Despite Friday’s weakness, the Nasdaq is set for six consecutive months of gains, boosted by impressive results from big technology companies. The is on course to end in the positive territory for three months in a row.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.59% at 33,859.8 points, while the S&P 500 lost 0.72% to 4,180.97.

The dropped 0.85% to 13,963.28.

Chevron Corp (NYSE:) shed more than 3% after its first-quarter profit fell 29%, hit by weaker refining margins and production losses.

AbbVie Inc (NYSE:) rose 0.6% after it reported strong results and raised its 2021 earnings forecast, helped by demand for its rheumatoid arthritis drug in the United States.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 2.12-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and for a 1.98-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P index recorded 44 new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 52 new highs and 26 new lows.