US stocks trade mixed as hotly anticipated mega-cap tech earnings get off to a weak start

• US stocks were mixed on Wednesday as investors digested weak third-quarter earnings from Microsoft and Alphabet.
• Google's parent company suffered an unexpected slowdown in digital advertising growth last quarter.

US stocks opened mixed on Wednesday as investors sifted through weaker-than-expected earnings from large tech companies.

Microsoft and Alphabet both reported earnings late Tuesday, with each of the closely watched mega-cap firms offering disappointing results. The Google parent, for its part, reported an unexpected slowdown in revenue last quarter, with the company reporting a decline in ad sales on YouTube for first time since 2019, when it began reporting results for that division separately.

Microsoft earnings also disappointed investors. It reported the lowest revenue growth in five years and said that it expects computer sales to slow. It also pointed to the surging strength of the US dollar as a source of pain. Shares of the company fell nearly 7%.

Elsewhere in markets, the 10-year Treasury yield edged lower by about five basis points to 4.05%. Markets have been pricing in lower odds of a jumbo rate hike by the Federal Reserve in December, even as fed futures are pricing in a 95% chance of a 75-basis-point move higher at the November meeting next week.

Here's where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. opening bell on Wednesday:

• S&P 500: 3,835.71, down 0.61%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 31,921.92, up 0.27% (85.18 points)
• Nasdaq Composite: 10,976.44, down 1.99%

Here's what else is happening this morning:

• Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon warned that a US recession is likely, and said that the Fed could raise rates above 4.5%.
• Russia's state-run energy firm Gazprom is testing gas supplies in a key hub in Siberia, likely paving the way for more Russian oil to flow to China.
• The ProShares bitcoin futures ETF that launched in 2021 burned through $1.2 billion of investors' money in the first year, according to the FT.

In commodities, bonds, and crypto:

• Oil prices edged higher. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 0.7% to $85.86 per barrel. Brent, the international benchmark, was up 0.3% to $93.82 a barrel.
• Gold climbed 0.6% to $1,667 per ounce.
• The 10-year Treasury yield slipped to 4.05%.
• Bitcoin climbed further above the key $20,000 level, increasing 5.7% to $20,507.