FMC plunges 33% on lower quarterly earnings projection

Uber decreases after assisting Q1 reservations listed below price quotes

*

Indexes: kenpoguy.com Dow up 0.15%, wiki.lafabriquedelalogistique.fr S&P 500 down 0.08%, Nasdaq down 0.34%

(Updates with afternoon prices)

By Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta

Feb 5 (Reuters) -

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq slipped on Wednesday, with Alphabet the greatest drag after the tech giant's ugly cloud earnings and significant investments into synthetic intelligence disappointed financiers, while a slew of profits contributed to the volatility.

Google-parent Alphabet dropped 8.2% after posting downbeat cloud income development and earmarking a higher-than-expected $75 billion for addsub.wiki its AI buildout this year.

"The market has some evidence to suggest that there are other companies that potentially doing it cheaper, better, quicker, quicker," said Dave Grecsek, handling director in planning method and research at Aspiriant.

"So what is the wisdom of continuing to maintain high capex?"

AI-related stocks were rocked recently following the soaring appeal of an affordable Chinese expert system model developed by startup

DeepSeek

. Nvidia, one of the companies that was the worst hit, was up 3.8% on the day.

Advanced Micro Devices, on the other hand, lost 8.9% after CEO Lisa Su said the company's current-quarter data center sales - a proxy for its AI profits - would fall about 7% from the previous quarter.

On the data front, U.S. services sector activity suddenly slowed in January in the middle of cooling demand, helping curb price development, a reading from the Institute for Supply Management showed.

Private payrolls increased by 183,000 tasks last month, compared with an approximated 150,000 boost, per economic experts surveyed by Reuters. The all-important January nonfarm payrolls report is anticipated to be launched on Friday.

Shares of Apple eased 1.2% as Bloomberg News reported that China's antitrust regulator was preparing for a possible examination of the iPhone maker.

At 11:33 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 65.83 points, or 0.15%, to 44,621.87, the S&P 500 lost 4.37 points, or 0.08%, to 6,033.51 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 70.17 points, or 0.34%, to 19,586.61.

Eight of the 11 S&P 500 sectors traded greater, though interaction services' over 3% fall obscured gains.

Uber Technologies dropped 7.2% after the ride-hailing business anticipated current-quarter bookings listed below quotes.

Fiserv advanced 7.1% as the payments firm beat estimates for fourth-quarter earnings, assisted by strong demand in its banking and payments processing unit.

Markets also searched for developments on the tariffs front after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he remained in no hurry to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping to try to defuse a new trade war between the nations.

Richmond Fed president Thomas Barkin said the Fed was still leaning towards more rate cuts this year, however flagged uncertainty around the impact of brand-new tariffs, immigration, policies and other Trump administration efforts.

Among leading movers, FMC Corp plunged 33.6% after the agrichemicals manufacturer projection first-quarter earnings below price quotes.

Johnson Controls leapt 11.1% as the building solutions business called Joakim Weidemanis as primary executive officer and raised its 2025 earnings projection.

Advancing problems outnumbered decliners by a 2.03-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.6-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 27 brand-new 52-week highs and 12 brand-new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 81 brand-new highs and 69 brand-new lows.

(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai, Devika Syamnath and Maju Samuel)