Wall Street in the red at midday after GDP Data disappoints

12:05pm: Amazon profits triple to $8.1 billion

The Dow was down 203 points, 0.6%, to 33,857 at midday. The Nasdaq Composite lost 56 points, 0.4%, to 14,026, and the S&P 500 slid 23 points, 0.6%, to 4,188.

“A weaker than expected US GDP print has sparked a decline in US markets,” IG Senior Market Analyst Joshua Mahony wrote. “…Today’s annualised GDP reading of 6.4% fell short of estimates today, and markets evidently struggled with that fact. Declines throughout US markets at the open come despite a post-earnings surge from tech giant Facebook.”

Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares are up after the company posted a record first quarter profit of $8.1 billion, triple its profit from the same period a year earlier.

9:40am: Proactive North America headlines:

Numinus Wellness Inc (CVE:NUMI) (OTCMKTS:LKYSF) (FRA:LR23) ends 2Q with C$28.5M after closing Mindspace Wellbeing acquisition

Gevo Inc (NASDAQ:GEVO) (FRA:ZGV3) officially breaks ground on its renewable natural gas project in northwest Iowa

Naturally Splendid Enterprises Ltd (CVE:NSP) (OTCPINK:NSPDF) (FRA:50N) appoints CANEX Foods as master distributor for NATERA Plant Based Foods in Canada

KushCo Holdings Inc (OTCQX:KSHB) reveals the future leadership team following its merger with Greenlane Holdings

Bragg Gaming Group (TSE:BRAG) (OTCMKTS:BRGGF) (FRA:SL4A) to undergo 10:1 reverse stock split in effort to earn Nasdaq listing

Los Andes Copper Ltd (CVE:LA) (OTCMKTS:LSANF) (FRA:L41A) receives environmental approval for drilling, allowing it to complete PFS at Chile copper project

Playgon Games Inc (CVE:DEAL) (OTCQB:PLGNF) (FRA:7CR) goes live in South Africa’s $2.9B gaming market with Intelligent Gaming

Aurania Resources Ltd (CVE:ARU) (OTCMKTS:AUIAF) (FRA:20Q) extends Tiria-Shimpia target in Ecuador to 22km after discovering Shimpia North

Empress Royalty Corp (CVE:EMPR ) (OTCQB:EMPYF) (FRA:53G) funds silver stream agreement on Tahuehueto project in Mexico

Marble Financial Inc (CSE MRBL) (OTCMKTS:MRBLF) (FRA:2V0) partners with 55Rush and its 1.1M Parent Life Network to build audience for financial literacy tools

9:38am: Wall Street opens lower

Markets on Wall Street have opened lower on Friday morning as traders stood back and took a breather after Thursday’s blockbuster session.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.45% at 33,907 while the S&P 500 dropped 0.55% to 4,188 and the Nasdaq fell 0.6% to 13,997.

While the wider market was negative, shares in Amazon jumped 1.3% to US$3,515 in early deals following the ecommerce giant’s strong quarterly numbers overnight.

8:00am: Wall Street to open softer

The main Wall Street indices are expected to open on a little lower on Friday as investors paused for breath after a stellar week for earnings from Big Tech.

Futures are pointing to a softer start, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq all expected to shed a few points at open as they simmer down from Thursday’s mania.

It’s been a tech-focused week in New York, with Amazon Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) ending the release flurry with a blockbuster set of quarterly numbers as a boom in online shopping during lockdowns across the world sent profits surging.

Net income more than trebled to US$8.1bn in the three months to 31 March compared with US$2.5bn a year ago, while net sales jumped 44% to US$108.5bn.

Twitter, instead, saw its shares drop after second-quarter forecasts fell short of expectations, after guiding down on its monetizable daily active user average growth rate.

Friday will see the release of the latest personal spending and income numbers for March, “which are expected to see a skew as a result of the second round of stimulus payments”, according to Michael Hewson at CMC Markets.

“Given we already know that retail sales numbers for March were very good, it’s not too much of a stretch to see similar strong numbers here. In February we saw personal income decline -7.1% after a 10% rise in January,” he said.

“The March stimulus payments are expected to see personal income rise by 20%, however regarding spending the estimates appear to be much more conservative, with an expectation of a 4.2% rise, after a February decline of -1%.”

Four things to watch for on Friday:

• The earnings diary for the end of the week will see results from oil majors ExxonMobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) and Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX), biopharma firm AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV) and household products group Colgate-Palmolive Co (NYSE:CL)
• Shares in bleach maker Clorox Co (NYSE:CLX) will be in focus after the company reported sales that missed estimates alongside a swing to a loss
• Similarly, microblogging platform Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) will be on interest after its quarterly earnings beat expectations but user numbers fell short of forecasts
• On the macro front, investors will be paying attention to US income data for March as well as the latest Chicago PMI and Michigan consumer sentiment information

Story by ProactiveInvestors