What's influencing markets: IBM acquiring HashiCorp, Meta profits, and the impending U.S. GDP
On Thursday, U.S. stock futures fell as investors watched Facebook owner Meta Platforms' (NASDAQ:META) earnings and the impending financial reports from other large technology companies. IBM reports mixed first-quarter earnings and says it will pay $6.4 billion to purchase cloud software company HashiCorp (NASDAQ:HCP). In other news, it is anticipated that the U.S. economy slowed down in the first three months of 2024 but continued to be strong despite high interest rates and ongoing inflationary pressures. 1. Futures nudge lower As investors evaluated the earnings of well-known technology companies and anticipated a new reading on U.S. economic growth, New York stock futures pointed lower on Thursday. At 03:30 ET (07:30 GMT), the Dow futures contract had lost 95 points, or 0.2%, S&P 500 futures had lost 34 points, or 0.7%, and Nasdaq 100 futures had lost 211 points, or 1.2%. After erratic trading, the major Wall Street indices ended the previous session with mixed results. T