S&P 500 climbs as banks shine, but Google-led wobble in tech keeps gains in check

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com -- The S&P 500 climbed Monday, as banks continued to roll out mostly upbeat quarterly earnings, though a Google-led a wobble in tech kept gains in check. 

The S&P 500 rose 0.2%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.2%, or 66 points, and the Nasdaq gained 0.2%.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) fell more than 2% on reports that Samsung (KS:005930) is mulling ditching Google’s search for Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bing as the default search engine on its devices, threatening about $3 billion in annual revenue, the New York Times reported. 

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was trading below the flatline even as the tech giant announced that it would launch a savings account for Apple card users.

Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) slipped more than 2% ahead of its quarterly results on Tuesday after markets close, with some on Wall Street keen for updates on the streaming giant’s crackdown on password sharing.

“We believe the key debate into the print is the impact of paid sharing on [near-term] growth,” UBS said in a recent note. “We continue to believe password sharing restrictions could provide an [mid-single digit percentage] uplift to rev (ex churn)&quickly turn accretive,” it added.

Sentiment on growth corners of the market including tech was also weighed down by a jump in Treasury yields amid growing fears about further Federal Reserve rate hikes.

“We continue to expect a 25 bp rate hike at the May FOMC meeting,” UBS said, adding that an unexpected pause from the Fed would likely be driven by concern “over the banking system and credit.”

The odds of a 25-basis-point rate hike at the Fed’s May 3 meeting is nearly priced in, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool.

Financials, meanwhile, continued to dominate attention as banks rolled out quarterly earnings.

Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) rose more than 2% after reporting mixed first-quarter results as earnings beat but revenue fell short of expectations. The brokerage company also reported a drop in deposits and said it was pausing its share buyback program.  

M&T Bank (NYSE:MTB) rallied more than 6% as its quarterly results beat on both the top and bottom lines, while State Street Corp (NYSE:STT) fell 11% after its first-quarter results fell short of estimates.

Roblox (NYSE:RBLX), meanwhile, fell 12% after warning that average bookings per daily user in March, the company’s gauge of revenue, is expected to fall year over year.

In deal news, Prometheus Biosciences (NASDAQ:RXDX) jumped 70% after Merck&Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) announced that it agreed to acquire the Biosciences company in a $10.8B deal.