Disappointing quarterly results at tech bellwethers Alphabet, the parent of Google, and Microsoft ignited a sell-off across many of the largest stocks in the sector on Friday.
Alphabet (GOOGL) reported revenue of $20.3 billion for the quarter, matching expectations. But adjusted profits of $7.50 per share missed analyst estimates in part due to growing losses on its long-term “other bets” unit, which includes self-driving cars and medical research. Its shares lost 6% on Friday.
Microsoft (MSFT) said brought in $22.1 billion in sales, as analysts expected, but disappointed with adjusted earnings share of only 62 cents on Thursday due in part to a shortfall profits in its critical cloud computing effort. Its shares lost 7% on Friday.
The two profit misses, following earlier disappointments from Intel (INTC) and International Business Machines (IBM), were apparently enough to prompt many investors in other large cap tech stocks to lighten up their holdings heading into the weekend.
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Facebook (FB), which competes with Google for online advertising, suffered the most, dropping 3%. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (BABA) lost 2% as did Intel and creative design software producer Adobe Systems (ADBE).
Shares of IBM, Apple (AAPL), and Salesforce.com (CRM) each lost about 1%.
Only one major tech stock went against the grain with a blockbuster gain. Shares of struggling chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) were up 38% to $3.62, the highest level since mid-2014, after the company announced a new joint venture in China. AMD agreed to license server chip designs that will be made and sold in China by a Chinese partner, Tianjin Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment.
Also, while AMD’s quarterly revenue was down 19% from year ago and it reported yet another quarterly loss, both figures were better than analysts had expected.
