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.

Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-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.
Get Kiplinger Today newsletter — free
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.
-
Rising AI Demand Stokes Undersea Investments
The Kiplinger Letter As demand soars for AI, there’s a need to transport huge amounts of data across oceans. Tech giants have big plans for new submarine cables, including the longest ever.
By John Miley Published
-
Return to Your Home Country to Retire: Repatriation Retirement
They came to the U.S. to live and work, but they want to retire in the old country. Here's how to juggle the move back home.
By Alina Tugend Published
-
Stock Market Today: Dow Sinks 715 Points as Inflation Unrest Grows
Inflation worries are showing up in both hard and soft data.
By Karee Venema Published
-
Stock Market Today: It's Going to Stay Choppy for Stocks
Auto-focus can show us a lot about uncertainty on the ground and in the stock market.
By David Dittman Published
-
Stock Market Today: Auto Tariffs Send Stocks Lower
The main indexes snapped their win streaks after the White House confirmed President Trump will talk about auto tariffs after the close.
By Karee Venema Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Seesaw After Big Market Rally
The latest consumer confidence data showed sentiment remains low.
By Karee Venema Published
-
Stock Market Today: Markets Celebrate Trump's Tariff Détente
Consumer discretionary stocks led 10 of the 11 S&P 500 sector groups well into the green.
By David Dittman Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Swing Higher After Early Slump
Negative earnings reactions for Nike, FedEx and Micron kept pressure on the main indexes, though.
By Karee Venema Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Struggle After Big Fed Gains
An unexpected rise in existing home sales couldn't save stocks on Thursday.
By Karee Venema Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Enjoy a Fed Day Relief Rally
The question now is whether Jerome Powell and other policymakers can get the balance right given all the new noise.
By David Dittman Published