Stocks were lower on Thursday as Wall Street weighed a mixed batch of corporate earnings, with Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA) disappointing report pressuring the technology sector. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over 100 points, while the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.6% and 0.8%, respectively.
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): -0.59% or -24.67 points to 4,129.84
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): -0.33% or -110.46 points to 33,786.55
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): -0.80% or -97.67 points to 12,059.56
Taking center-stage Thursday, Tesla shares sank as much as 8% after the electric car maker reported a more than 20% drop in both net income and GAAP earnings year-over-year in the first quarter. CEO Elon Musk signaled that the company would prefer higher volumes to higher margins.
"We've taken a view that pushing for higher volumes and a larger fleet is the right choice here, versus a lower volume and higher margin," Musk said on an earnings call.
Elsewhere for earnings, IBM (NYSE: IBM) shares rose after reporting a mixed Q1 earnings report. CFO Jim Kavanaugh said on an earnings call that the company has taken steps to operate more efficiently, including optimizing its infrastructure and application environment and adding IBM Red Hat OpenShift software. IBM also forecasted full-year revenue growth of 3% to 5% in constant currency.
American Express (NYSE: AXP) posted a Q1 profit miss on Thursday, but its revenue jumped 22% year-over-year, benefiting from higher rates and inflation. "Our customers have been resilient thus far in the face of slower macroeconomic growth, elevated inflation and higher interest rates, with credit performance remaining best-in-class," said CEO Stephen Squeri in a press release.
AT&T (NYSE: T) shares fell after the telecommunications giant reported a Q1 revenue miss, but added 424,000 postpaid phone plans during the quarter. "We believe our results demonstrate that the customer-centric strategy we launched almost three years ago continues to deliver the right mix of quality subscriber and profit growth that will prove sustainable over the longer term," CEO John Stankey said in the company's earnings call.
In economic news, existing home sales fell at a larger-than-expected rate in March as high interest rates priced many would-be buyers out of the market. Sales represented a 2.4% decline over February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.44 million, according to the National Association of Realtors report on Thursday.
"Home sales are trying to recover and are highly sensitive to changes in mortgage rates," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR, in a statement. "Yet, at the same time, multiple offers on starter homes are quite common, implying more supply is needed to fully satisfy demand. It's a unique housing market."
Separately, initial jobless claims rose at a higher-than-expected rate again last week, totaling 245,000 for the week ended April 15, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Data from the previous week was also upwardly revised by 1,000, signaling the labor market is slowing in response to the Federal Reserve's rate hiking campaign. Moreover, continuing jobless claims, which run a week behind, rose by 61,000 to a more-than-expected 1.865 million.
Looking ahead, traders will react to earnings reports from companies including Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) and Freeport-McMoran (NYSE: FCX).