By Shreyashi Sanyal
(Reuters) – Nasdaq futures edged lower on Friday after chipmaker Intel warned of lower profit margins, while Snap Inc led declines among social media firms after flagging a hit to digital advertising from privacy changes by Apple.
Intel Corp slid 10.3% in premarket trading as it missed third-quarter sales expectations, while its Chief Executive pointed to shortage of other chips holding back sales of the company’s flagship processors.
Supply chain worries, inflationary pressures and labor shortages have been at the center of third-quarter earnings season, with analysts expecting S&P 500 earnings to rise 33.7% year-on-year, according to data from Refinitiv.
Some analysts, however, said such worries will only have a temporary impact on earnings from mega-cap technology and communications companies this reporting season.
“Intel also produced less than stellar results. Shorting big-tech has been a good way to lose money in the past two years, and I expect only a temporary aberration,” wrote Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst, Asia Pacific at OANDA in a client note.
Facebook Inc fell 3.7%, while Twitter Inc lost 4.1% after Snap Inc said privacy changes by Apple Inc on iOS devices hurt the company’s ability to target and measure its digital advertising.
Snap plummeted 20.9% on the news and cast doubts over quarterly reports next week from Facebook and Twitter, social media firms that rely heavily on advertising revenue.
Apple rose 0.2%. Other growth stocks including Tesla Inc, Microsoft Corp and Netflix Inc also rose, limiting declines on Nasdaq 100 e-minis.
At 6:47 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 33 points, or 0.09%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 3.5 points, or 0.08%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 26.75 points, or 0.17%.
Mattel Inc jumped 8.2% after it raised its 2021 sales forecast on Thursday, saying it would overcome industry-wide shipping disruptions.
Honeywell International Inc fell 2.1% after the industrial conglomerate cut its full-year sales and adjusted profit forecast on global supply chain disruptions.
(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
