S&P 500 pares losses, but Netflix slump curbs upside momentum

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com -- The S&P 500 pared losses Wednesday, but gains were kept in check by mixed quarterly results including from streaming giant Netflix as the earnings season continued to heat up.

The S&P 500 gained 0.1%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.21%, or 76 points, and the Nasdaq rose 0.2%.

Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) fell more than 3% after reporting mixed first-quarter results and guidance that fell short of expectations as the streaming giant delayed plans to broaden its crackdown on password sharing.

Netflix delayed its plans to broaden its paid-sharing option, which requires users to pay a fee for sharing their subscriptions, to the second quarter from late Q1.

“The password crackdown [is] still expected to drive short-term churn, before driving 2H revenue acceleration in subscribers and monetization,” Oppenheimer said in a recent note.

Tech was also weighed down by a stumble in semiconductor stocks as ASML Holdings (NASDAQ:ASML) slipped 3% after reporting a 46% drop in first-quarter net bookings as customer demand remains on the backfoot.

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) also weighed on semis, falling more than 1% after announcing it would end production of its bitcoin mining chips.  

Financials, meanwhile, continued to roll out quarterly results, with regional banks as well as Morgan Stanley in focus.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) reported first-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street estimates, but that was overshadowed by weakness in deal-making activity that led to a 19% fall in profit.

Sentiment on the regional banking sector, which has seen the most stress following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, was boosted by an 23% surge in Western Alliance (NYSE:WAL) after the bank said its deposits have been rebounding since April.  

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) pared losses despite reporting quarterly results that missed on both the top and bottom lines as deposits slipped by nearly 5% following the recent turmoil in the banking sector.  

United Airlines Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:UAL) climbed more than 6% as its forecast for it to swing to profit in Q2 overshadowed mixed quarterly results as revenue fell short of analyst estimates.

Energy stocks, meanwhile, dragged the broader market lower as oil prices fell despite data showing U.S. weekly inventories fell much more than expected last week.

Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO), Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE:MPC), Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) were among the biggest decliners in energy.