Stocks tumble as earnings season approaches

U.S. stocks fell sharply Monday to start the week, led by losses in shares of technology companies as investors braced for the start of earnings season and fresh inflation data due out Wednesday.

The Nasdaq Composite shed 2.3%, and the S&P 500 slid 1.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 160 points, or 0.5%. Monday’s moves follow an up week for stocks that saw all three benchmarks log weekly gains despite closing flat after Friday’s jobs report.

Meanwhile, the euro fell closer toward parity with the U.S. dollar. The currency dropped as much as 1.4% to $1.0044, hitting a fresh two-decade low as investors considered the possibility of an energy crisis pushing Europe’s economy into a recession.

Twitter (TWTR) was in focus on Monday after Elon Musk backed out of his $44 billion bid for the social media platform late last week. Musk cited “material” breaches of multiple provisions in the agreement in his decision to terminate the deal, including Twitter’s recent decision to axe some of its recruiting team and failure to provide Musk with what he views as accurate count on “bots,” or fake accounts. Shares closed down 11.3% to $32.65 a piece.

“It really isn’t about the bots,” Wells Fargo Senior Equity Analyst Brian Fitzgerald told Yahoo Finance Live on Friday. “This is Team Musk articulating for a lower price.”

Meanwhile, oil prices fell Monday amid renewed COVID fears in China that stoked worries around supply. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures declined by roughly $1, or 1%, to $103.70, partially reversing a 2% gain on Friday. Brent Crude Oil also dipped by roughly 0.3% to $106.71 per barrel.

Investors are in for a bevy of quarterly results this week as major companies kick off a new earnings season.

Early reporters include JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC), and Citigroup (C) among the big banks set to release results, as well as PepsiCo (PEP) and Delta Air Lines (DAL).

Wall Street has trimmed its second-quarter bottom-up earnings per share estimate for the S&P 500 by 1.1% between March 31 and June 30, according to recent data from FactSet.

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Although the estimated 4.1% annual earnings growth rate for the benchmark index for the second quarter would mark the slowest since year-end 2020, the markdown by analysts is smaller than typically seen ahead of earnings season.

Later this week, investors will get the latest gauge on how quickly consumer prices are rising across the U.S. economy when the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ releases its Consumer Price Index (CPI) for June on Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect headline inflation rose 8.8% last month, an increase that would be the highest since December 1981 and the hottest reading of this current inflation cycle.

“We’re expecting another strong inflation print,” Deutsche Bank Chief U.S. Economist Matthew Luzzetti told Yahoo Finance Live on Mnday. “For a market that’s been dealing with certainly recession fears, I think this week will be renewed fears about elevated inflation.”

On the move:

• Twitter (TWTR) shares fell 11.3% to close at $32.65 after Elon Musk backed out of his $44 billion bid for the social media platform on Friday. Musk cited “material” breaches of multiple provisions in the agreement in his decision to terminate the deal, including Twitter’s recent decision to axe some of its recruiting team and failure to provide Musk with what he views as accurate count on “bots,” or fake accounts.

• Meta Platforms (META) tumbled 4.7% to $162.88 following a downgrade by Needham & Company analyst Laura Martin to Underperform from Hold, recommending investors remain on the sidelines as the social media giant evaluates “several structural valuation risks,” including consumer behavior shifts, competition, moat degradation, regulatory risks and Metaverse investment risks.

• Uber (UBER) stock slid 5.1% to $21.21 per share following reports the ride-hailing company attempted to lobby politicians, including French President Emmanuel Macron, and defied certain laws in efforts to expand its operations globally from 2013 to 2017. The so-called “Uber Files” reported by the Guardian and French newspaper Le Monde is based on more than 124,000 documents leaked to the outlets revealing “ethically questionable practices” that powered the company rise under co-founder Travis Kalanick.

• American Airlines (AAL) shares fell 3.9% along with declines across other airline stocks amid worries over a COVID resurgence in China.

• Duolingo (DUOL) plunged 14.3% after a downgrade on the stock by KeyBanc analyst Justin Patterson to Sector Weight from Outperform “due to headwinds from inflation and signs of softness in other freemium apps” — a business model in which consumers pay nothing to download the application but are offered optional in-app purchases for premium features.

• Match Group (MTCH) shares fell 6.7% after analysts at KeyBanc Capital Markets lowered their price target on the company to $90 from $125, citing expectations the dating-app may come under pressure in a recessionary environment. The firm, however, reiterated its Overweight rating on the stock.

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Alexandra Semenova is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alexandraandnyc

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