U.S. Stocks Open Lower Ahead of Big Tech Earnings Reports

By Liz Moyer

Investing.com — U.S. stocks opened lower and oil prices rebounded as investors worried about slowing global growth and looked ahead to earnings from Microsoft and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL).

At 9:45 AM ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 280 points or 0.8%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.9% and the NASDAQ Composite fell 1.5%.

Twitter, Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) stock fell 1.7% in early trading a day after the social media company accepted Elon Musk’s $44 billion take-private offer, though analysts and investors were still trying to work out the longer-term implications of his ownership on the platform.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Alphabet Inc. Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG), which report after the closing bell tonight, kick off a week of big tech earnings, with Twitter coming later as well as Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN).

One-third of the S&P 500 stocks will report results this week.

In economic news, durable goods orders rose 0.8% last month, falling slightly below the expectation for 1% growth but a rebound from February’s decline of 1.7%.

Oil also staged a comeback after slumping on Monday. An outbreak of COVID-19 in China’s capital of Beijing spooked traders yesterday on fears of more lockdowns. Those fears remain, but oil rose on Tuesday, with Crude Oil WTI Futures up 1.3% to $99.86, and Brent Oil Futures crude up 1.6% to $103.84. Gold Futures rose 1.8% to $1911/oz.