Topline
A slew of major American technology stocks pulled back Wednesday, as the latest batch of fourth-quarter earnings and an increasingly complicated operating environment for multinational companies ate at Wall Street’s risk appetite.
An ever-shifting geopolitical backdrop has weighed on the minds of investors.
Key Facts
The tech-heavy Nasdaq index dipped 0.7% shortly after market open.
Leading the losses was an 8% drop for Google parent Alphabet, a slide which erased as much as $211 billion in market value after the company’s earnings report revealed weaker Q4 revenues than consensus analyst forecasts and far higher 2025 spending guidance than anticipated, as Alphabet stock paces toward its biggest percentage loss since October 2023.
Also struggling after their company’s earnings reports were shares of semiconductor designer Advanced Micro Devices and ride-hailer Uber.
AMD stock tanked 10% to their cheapest level since 2023 after the firm fell short of estimates in its artificial intelligence-focused datacenter division, while Uber stock fell 7% after the company predicted lower-than-expected ride revenue during 2025’s first three months.
Notable fallers not tied to quarterly results included iPhone maker Apple, and Elon Musk’s electric vehicle producer Tesla, both of which suffered about 2% share price declines.
Key Background
Apple’s drop followed a Bloomberg report Chinese regulators are considering an antitrust investigation into Apple over its App Store fees, a possible retaliation to President Donald Trump’s 10% additional tariffs on U.S. imports of Chinese goods. Tesla’s dip came after the company reportedly suffered its worst month for new car sales in Germany since 2021 and France since 2022, a potential consequence of Musk’s outspoken support for right-wing politicians including Germany’s Alternative for Deutschland party. The Nasdaq is still up 1% in 2025, but it’s been a rocky path to those gains, as tariffs and the heated U.S.-China generative AI competition weighed on investors’ minds.
Tangent
Also down Wednesday were New York-listed shares of Chinese companies. Online retailers Alibaba and Temu parent Pinduoduo, the two most valuable U.S.-traded Chinese firms, both suffered about 2% drops as investors reacted to an increasingly messy trade conflict between the U.S. and China, which most recently resulted in the U.S. Postal Service briefly pausing acceptance of all packages from China and Hong Kong.