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Amazon down after signaling slower AWS growth
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Pinterest, Snap fall on downbeat forecasts
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Intel gains on upbeat view on margins
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March PCE index due at 8:30 a.m. ET
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Futures down: Dow 0.37%, S&P 0.37%, Nasdaq 0.28%
(Updates prices throughout, adds details)
By Sruthi Shankar and Ankika Biswas
April 28 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures dipped on
Friday as Amazon's warning about a slowdown in its cloud
business and downbeat forecasts from Snap and Pinterest dented
Wall Street sentiment, while investors awaited a key inflation
report later in the day.
Amazon.com Inc's shares lost 2.2% in premarket
trading as the company signaled its cloud growth would slow
further, overshadowing its better-than-expected quarterly
results.
Snapchat-owner Snap Inc tumbled 17.8% as it warned
next quarter results could miss Wall Street targets, while
Pinterest Inc dropped 14% after the image-sharing
platform forecast second-quarter revenue growth below estimates
as advertising spending declines.
Cloudflare Inc also tumbled 25.9% on a downbeat
revenue forecast from the cloud services provider.
The weak updates follow stronger-than-expected earnings from
big technology and growth companies this week including Alphabet
Inc , Microsoft Corp and Meta Platforms Inc which led analysts to improve first-quarter profit
estimates for S&P 500 companies.
The main U.S. indexes ended up sharply on Thursday, with the
benchmark S&P 500 logging its biggest one-day percentage
gain since early January.
Analysts expect first-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies to fall 2.4% year-over-year compared with a forecast for a 5.1% fall at the start of April.
Investors will closely monitor personal consumption expenditure index reading, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, due at 8:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT).
The core rate for March, excluding prices of volatile items such as food and energy, is expected to remain unchanged at 0.3% from the previous month and slip to 4.5% from 4.6% year on year. Further, the University of Michigan's preliminary reading of consumer sentiment index for April, due after the opening bell, is expected to remain unchanged at 63.5. Data on Thursday showed U.S. economic growth slowed more than expected in the first quarter, while plunging consumer confidence in April heightened the risk that the economy could fall into recession this year. Still, the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points at its May 2-3 meeting, potentially the last hike in the U.S. central bank's fastest monetary policy tightening cycle since the 1980s. The U.S. central bank will publish at 11 a.m. ET (1500 GMT) its internal review of its supervision of Silicon Valley Bank, whose failure set off a broader loss of investor confidence in the banking sector.
At 7:23 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 127 points, or 0.37%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 15.25 points, or 0.37%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 37.25 points, or 0.28%. Colgate-Palmolive Co gained 1.6% after the toothpaste maker lifted its annual organic sales forecast betting on consistent price hikes. Exxon Mobil edged up 0.2% after the energy giant posted record first-quarter profit. Chipmaker Intel Corp gained 5.5% after it said gross margins will improve in the second half of the year. First Republic Bank rose 4.5% as U.S. officials are coordinating urgent talks to rescue the beleaguered lender, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)
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