Tech futures fall after Samsung and Alphabet earnings miss; Fed holds rates but signals hikes ahead

Samsung shares fell 4% in South Korea and Alphabet lost 10% in overnight trading after the earnings reports. Samsung's chipmaking division posted lower-than-expected operating profit, Fortune reported. At Alphabet, cloud revenue beat expectations, but search ad revenue fell short, fueling investor concerns that artificial-intelligence overlays are cannibalising the company's core business.

"The problem is everything else," David Wagner of Aptus Capital Advisors told Fortune.

The Federal Reserve held interest rates at its latest meeting but suggested rate hikes were likely ahead. SoFi’s Liz Thomas said there should have been a rate hike, noting that oil prices are likely to stay high as long as the war in Iran continues, and that inflation is likely to stay high too. “So it’s very possible we start hearing chatter about a 50 basis point hike in December if the Fed needs to play catch-up,” she wrote in an email to Fortune. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh also said he will reduce the number of rate-setting meetings next year, a move that UBS’s Paul Donovan described as “an interesting choice” given economic and political turmoil.

Nasdaq futures were off by more than 1% before the open. S&P 500 futures were down 0.3%, a day after the index had risen 0.28%. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 gained 0.4% and the FTSE 100 added 0.31%. Asia was mixed. South Korea’s KOSPI lost 1.24% and China’s CSI 300 dropped 1.03%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 advanced 1.1% and India’s Nifty 50 gained 1.08%. Brent crude fell to $114 per barrel and Bitcoin was at $80,029.

Microsoft bucked the trend, beating revenue expectations and lowering its capital expenditure guidance, with its stock rising 3.39% overnight.