The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 194.17 points, or 0.61 percent, to 32,033.28. The S&P 500 decreased 23.30 points, or 0.61 percent, to 3,807.30. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 178.32 points, or 1.63 percent, to 10,792.67.
Six of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in red, with communication services and technology down 4.12 percent and 1.25 percent, respectively, leading the laggards. Industrials rose 1.14 percent, the best-performing group.
Shares of Facebook parent Meta Platforms plummeted nearly 24.6 percent after the social media giant on Wednesday reported falling revenue and issued weaker forward guidance.
Shares of Google-parent Alphabet continued to decline on Thursday after tumbling more than 9 percent in the prior session. Earlier this week, the company missed both revenue and earnings estimates.
While Microsoft beat forecasts for both revenue and net income, its stock also fell due to lower growth forecasts for its cloud platform.
By far, the earnings results from top U.S. technology companies have been "discouraging," Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, said Thursday in a note.
"Even after a significant underperformance by tech so far this year, we don't believe the continuing headwinds for the sector are yet fully priced into the market," he said, adding "we remain least preferred on the sector."
On the economic front, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Thursday that the U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 2.6 percent in the third quarter of this year, following two straight quarters of contraction.
The U.S. Labor Department said that the nation's initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, increased by 3,000 to 217,000 in the week ending Oct. 22.
Latest comments