Stock market today: Indexes drop as tech shares slide before Apple, Amazon earnings

• Indexes fell for a second day on Thursday as a huge week for tech earnings shows mixed results.
• Meta and Microsoft slid after slight earnings beats, and Amazon and Apple are set to report after market close.
• PCE inflation, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, dropped to 2.1% while jobless claims fell more than expected.

Indexes slid on Thursday, heading for a second day of declines as big tech earnings fail to impress investors so far.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both slid, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost over 200 points shortly after the opening bell.

The drop comes amid a packed week for earnings, with several of the biggest tech stocks reporting third-quarter results.

Microsoft and Meta reported earnings that beat estimates after the closing bell on Wednesday, but the shares of both tech giants slid on forward guidance. Microsoft declined more than 4% after it shared expectations for slower growth in its cloud business, while Meta shares lost over 2% after forecasting "significant" capital expenditures growth next year.

Earlier in the week, Alphabet's earnings beat generated more enthusiasm among investors as CEO Sundar Pichai said the company's AI investments are "paying off."

Investors are bracing for earnings from Apple and Amazon after market close today. They will be paying particularly close attention for signs that AI is driving iPhone demand for Apple, especially after the company rolled out its iOS 18.1 update earlier this week, and they expect a strong beat from Amazon.

Meanwhile, the personal-consumption expenditures index, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, cooled to 2.1% year over year in September from 2.2% in August. That marks progress toward the Fed's 2% inflation target, but the core index—which excludes food and energy prices—came in hotter than expected at 2.7%.

Jobless claims from last week fell by more than expected to 216,000, a 12,000 drop from the week prior. Economists had expected claims to come in at 230,000.

Here's where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. opening bell on Thursday:

• S&P 500: 5,764.93, down 0.84%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 41,943.67, down 0.47% (-198.87 points)
• Nasdaq composite: 18,372.58, down 1.25%

Here's what else is going on:

• Arizona is the epicenter of the debate about how mass deportations under Trump would hit the US economy.
• Bringing manufacturing back to the US is a $10 trillion opportunity for the economy, Morgan Stanley says.
• Stocks are gripped by "near-euphoric sentiment" and the election may offer a chance to pull back, Citi says.
• Nvidia stock is undervalued because AI companies need to spend another $9 trillion to achieve superintelligence, Softbank CEO says.

In commodities, bonds, and crypto:

• Oil futures were up. West Texas Intermediate crude rose almost 1% to $69.27 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, climbed 0.8% to $73.13 a barrel.
• Gold rose slipped almost 1% to $2,776.80 an ounce.
• The 10-year Treasury yield rose two basis points to 4.292%.
• Bitcoin edged up to $71,869.