Google parent company Alphabet lost 3% overnight after it posted a 30% jump in fourth-quarter profits from a year ago but said it expects to continue to spend big on artificial intelligence projects. After pouring $91 billion into capital expenditures devoted mostly to AI last year, the Mountain View, California, company forecast another $175 billion to $185 billion this year.
Shares of chipmaker Qualcomm sank close to 12% after it beat Wall Street's first quarter sales and profit forecasts but said a an industry-wide shortage of memory would cut into its second-quarter results.
Outside of tech, Estee Lauder also topped Wall Street targets but said it expects tariff-related headwinds to wipe out about $100 worth of profits in 2026. The New York cosmetic company's shares fell more than 11% before the bell.
Bitcoin tumbled nearly 5%, falling below $70,000 to $69,493 early Thursday. That’s its lowest level since November 2024 and a more than 40% decline since it hit an all-time high around $125,000 in October.
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have dropped after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, said in answer to questions in the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday that he did not have the authority to order banks to buy such assets.
At midday in Europe, Germany's DAX slipped 0.1%, the CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.2% higher and Britain's FTSE 100 gave up 0.3%.
In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 shed 0.9% to 53,818.04, while the Kospi in South Korea skidded 3.9%, to 5,163.57.
Shares in South Korea's biggest company, Samsung Electronics, lost 5.9%. Chip maker SK Hynix plunged 6.7%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng regained early losses, closing 0.1% higher at 26,885.24. The Shanghai Composite index gave up 0.6% to 4,075.92.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.4% to 8,889.20, while Taiwan's Taiex lost 1.5%.
In energy markets early Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil fell 81 cents to $64.33 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, lost 86 cents to $68.60 per barrel.
Prices of precious metals resumed their roller coaster ride, as gold fell 2% to $4,849 per ounce, while silver sank another 10% to $75.70.
Their prices have surged and swooned recently as investors sought safer places to keep their money amid worries about everything from tariffs to a weaker U.S. dollar to heavy debt loads for governments worldwide. But critics have said their prices rose too far, too fast and were due for a pullback.
The dollar rose to 157.11 Japanese yen from 156.88 yen. The euro fell to $1.1797 from $1.1809.