【今日单词】
concoction /kənˈkɒkʃn/
noun
a mixture of various ingredients or elements.
"the facade is a strange concoction of northern Mannerism and Italian Baroque"
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原文如下：
The day in the markets
by Nicholas Megaw and George Steer
(来自：The Financial Time 金融时报)
What you need to know
• US tech shares fluctuate as Alphabet and Microsoft earnings disappoint
• Google parent Alphabet reports slowdown in search advertising business
• US government bonds rally while dollar softens
Weak third-quarter results from Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet weighed on US markets yesterday after the tech giants warned of weakness in key business lines that investors had hoped would be resilient to economic slowdown.
The weak reports dragged the tech-dominated Nasdaq Composite as much as 2.2 per cent lower in early trading, though it recovered some of its losses to trade 1.7 per cent lower by mid-afternoon.
The broader S&P 500 index swung between gains and losses in choppy trading but was 0.5 per cent lower by mid-afternoon.
Ted Mortonson, a tech sector strategist at Baird, said almost every part of the tech industry faced a difficult combination of pressures including a stronger dollar, falling consumer demand, weakness in Europe and Asia, rising interest rates and geopolitical tensions .
“We’ve got a concoction of ingredients that we haven’t [previously] seen all combined at once,” Mortonson said.
Alphabet’s results, published after markets closed on Tuesday evening, showed a sharp slowdown in growth in its core search advertising business.
Smaller rival Snap had already warned about advertising challenges last week, but many investors had hoped Google’s business would be less vulnerable to an economic downturn.
Facebook owner Meta was due to provide a further closely watched update on the state of digital advertising after markets closed yesterday. Its shares were down 3.8 per cent by mid-afternoon.
Prices on US government bonds rallied as investors continued to scale back expectations for how far the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates.
Futures markets were pricing in a peak rate of 4.85 per cent next May, down from 5 per cent last Thursday.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury, which falls when prices rise, dropped 10 basis points to 4 per cent.
The dollar softened 1.1 per cent against a basket of six peers, taking the US currency back to levels last seen in late September.
The euro climbed back above $1 for the first time in a month.
The pan-regional Stoxx Europe 600 index reversed earlier losses, rising 0.6 per cent.
London’s FTSE 100 index climbed 0.6 per cent in afternoon trading while yields on 10-year gilts lost 5bp to 3.58 per cent.
