Nasdaq futures fall 1% as tech earnings spark slowdown fears

Oct 26 (Reuters) – Nasdaq futures fell more than 1% on Wednesday, after disappointing results from technology giants Microsoft and Alphabet sparked losses in other megacap companies and raised fears of slowing economic growth.

Microsoft Corp posted its lowest sales growth in five years and forecast second-quarter revenue below Wall Street estimates, while Google-parent Alphabet posted downbeat ad sales and cautioned of a slowdown in advertising spending.

Shares of the companies sank 5.7% and 6.0%, respectively, in premarket trading, while those of Amazon.com and Apple, which are scheduled to report results this week, fell 3.7% and 0.6%.

The downbeat results follow Snap Inc’s warning last week on slowing ad demand and a string of mixed earnings reports that have fed into worries that decades-high inflation and aggressive interest rate hikes to quell it are taking a toll on the economy.

Wall Street’s three main indexes, however, posted gains for the past three days, fueled by hopes that the Federal Reserve could soon slow down the pace of its monetary policy tightening.

At 4:13 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 13 points, or 0.04%, S&P 500 e-minis  were down 24.25 points, or 0.63%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 169 points, or 1.44%.

(Reporting by Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)