US open: Traders dump Twitter, pick-up Boeing and Texas Instruments

Wall Street is adding to its tech-inspired losses from the previous day amid another move higher in American government bond yields.

Nevertheless, and despite a mixed bag of company results out before the opening bell, over the first 90 minutes of trading the main market indices had pared their initial losses.

At 1559 BST, the Dow Jones Industrials Average was off by 0.13% or 31.91 points at 23,992.96, alongside a dip of 0.15% or 4.14 points for the S&P 500 to 2,629.12, while the Nasdaq Composite was lower by 0.12% or 7.92 points to 7,001.05.

In parallel, the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note was again edging higher, adding two basis points to 3.01%.

Dragging on the Street, by sectors the worst performance was to be seen in Nonferrous Metals (14.51%), Tires (-4.35%) and Coal (-3.93%).

Like Caterpillar the day before, Twitter topped the most active shares list on the Big Board after management cautioned that "sequential growth rates for total revenue for the remainder of 2018 will resemble the sequential growth rates for total revenue in 2016."

At one point before the opening bell its shares had been quoted to open higher by 14%, resulting in an even bigger intra-day reversal than Caterpillar's during the previous session, although trading volumes can be low in premarket.

On the other side of the ledger, Broadcasting was among the best performing segments on the heels of Comcast's £22bn bid for Sky which saw its shares run up in value by 4%.

"Early signs of a possible stabilisation before the US open were seen, but stocks swiftly fell once more. However, there appears to be a number of brave buyers out there, stepping in to pick up shares and get the Dow off its lows after an hour or so of trading.

"Earnings season continues to punish those with doubts about the global outlook, as Twitter found out to its cost. A pre-market jump on headline earnings beats was sent brutally into reverse as the firm’s outlook for the year struck a distinctly gloomy note. This is all very similar to Caterpillar last night, and the fact that such disparate companies are being treated in such a similar way speaks to a definite sense of unease among investors," said Chris Beauchamp at IG.

No official economic releases were scheduled to be published on Wednesday, although the Department of Energy did report a 2.2m barrel build in the country's commercial oil inventories over the latest week.

To take note of as well, some analysts, such as those at Macquarie were keen to know the PCE price deflator figures that Friday's first quarter US GDP report would bring with it, having said as much in a report sent to clients the day before.

Back on the corporate front, earlier during the session, Comcast made a formal $31bn takeover offer for London-listed broadcaster Sky, which represents a 16% premium to the offer from Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox. Comcast made the announcement alongside its first-quarter results, which revealed revenue of $22.79bn compared to $20.59bn a year ago and earnings per share of 62 cents, up from 53 cents a year ago.

Boeing was another strong performer after the Chicago-based aerospace giant posted first quarter earnings per share of $3.64 (FactSet: $2.58), alongside sales of $23.38 (FactSet: $22.28bn).

Texas Instruments also smashed past forecasts, posting better-than-expected earnings late on Tuesday.

Shares of aerospace and defence technology group Northrop Grumman on the other hand were lower despite the release of its first-quarter results before the opening bell.

Earnings per share and revenue over the first three months of 2018 jumped when compared to the same period one year ago and the company lifted its 2018 EPS outlook to between $15.40 and $15.65 from between $15.00 and $15.25.

For after the close, earnings from Qualcomm, Paypal, Visa, AT&T, Facebook, Ebay and Ford were on tap.