Stock Market Today: Stocks Drop After Bleak Big Tech Earnings, Jobs Shocker
Apple (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOGL) all reported quarterly profit that fell short of estimates.


A busy week on Wall Street ended with wild swings for stocks as investors took in a mixed bag of Big Tech earnings and a shockingly strong monthly jobs report. After bouncing between positive and negative territory throughout the day, the major benchmarks ultimately ended Friday on a down note.
The shakiness started last night after Apple (AAPL, +2.4%), Amazon.com (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOGL, +2.8%) reported earnings. All three tech giants fell short of bottom-line estimates in their quarterly results, while Apple and Alphabet also missed on the top line. Despite its Q4 revenue beat, though, Amazon stock tumbled 8.4% – the worst return of the day for the group – as growth in its Amazon Web Services cloud segment slowed. "One common theme among the tech giants was growing concern about consumer weakness and challenging economic conditions," says José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers.
From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance
Be a smarter, better informed investor.

Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
This morning's January jobs report only added to investor uncertainty. The Labor Department said the U.S. economy added a jaw-dropping 517,000 jobs last month, well above economists expectations for 189,000 new jobs. Additionally, the unemployment rate declined to 3.4% from 3.5% in December – its lowest level since 1969. Today's data complicates the Fed's efforts to bring down inflation by aggressively hiking interest rates.
"The disinflation process may have begun, but a strong labor market may prove troubling for bets for inflation to continue to drop quickly," says Edward Moya, senior market strategist at currency data provider OANDA. "Investors expecting that the Fed will cut rates at the end of the year might be in for a rude awakening. We won't see linear moves with inflation trends and that should make it unlikely for inflation to be at low enough levels to justify rate cuts."
After falling at the open in reaction to tech earnings and the jobs report, the major benchmarks found their way into positive territory by late morning. But by the close, the indexes had swung back into negative territory, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending down 0.4% at 33,926, the S&P 500 off 1.0% at 4,136, and the Nasdaq Composite 1.6% lower at 12,006.
The Best Utility Stocks to Buy
We often talk about the importance of dividend-paying stocks as a means of not only providing additional income for investors, but also creating a ballast for portfolios against a volatile market.
One sector known for having these defensive qualities is utilities. Case in point: The utility sector is down around 2% on a year-over-year basis, compared to a nearly 10% decline for the broad market. Plus, the utility sector – which is known for having some of the best dividend stocks – currently sports an attractive 3% yield, almost double that of the S&P 500.
And the best utility stocks tend to be more stable than companies in other sectors, as well as have reliable revenue streams that often support healthy and consistent dividends over the long term.
Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplinger's advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and much more. Delivered daily. Enter your email in the box and click Sign Me Up.

With over a decade of experience writing about the stock market, Karee Venema is the senior investing editor at Kiplinger.com. She joined the publication in April 2021 after 10 years of working as an investing writer and columnist at a local investment research firm. In her previous role, Karee focused primarily on options trading, as well as technical, fundamental and sentiment analysis.
-
Stocks Swing in Volatile Session: Stock Market Today
The main indexes fell sharply in early trading on rising China tensions, but rebounded thanks to encouraging bank earnings.
-
Don't Miss Out! A Quiz on Medicare Enrollment Deadlines
Quiz Test your basic knowledge of Medicare enrollment periods in our quick quiz.
-
Stocks Swing in Volatile Session: Stock Market Today
The main indexes fell sharply in early trading on rising China tensions, but rebounded thanks to encouraging bank earnings.
-
Dow Adds 587 Points as Stocks Bounce: Stock Market Today
The main indexes rebounded sharply Monday after President Trump took a calmer stance toward China.
-
Dow Dives 878 Points on Trump's China Warning: Stock Market Today
The main indexes erased early gains after President Trump said China is becoming "hostile" and threatened to cancel a meeting with President Xi.
-
Stocks Retreat as Shutdown Continues: Stock Market Today
While the main indexes closed lower today, Delta and PepsiCo gained ground on encouraging earnings reports.
-
S&P 500 Hits New Highs as Rally Resumes: Stock Market Today
Tech stocks were the biggest gainers on Wall Street today, with Nvidia and Dell making notable moves.
-
Rally Fades on Mixed AI Revolution News: Stock Market Today
All three main U.S. equity indexes opened higher but closed lower as a seven-session winning streak for the S&P 500 came to an end.
-
S&P, Nasdaq Hit New Highs: Stock Market Today
A late-day rally wasn't enough to lift the Dow into the green as its six-session winning streak came to an end.
-
Dow Adds 238 Points as UNH, CAT Pop: Stock Market Today
The lack of a September jobs report didn't seem to worry market participants, with the data delayed due to the ongoing government shutdown.