FMC plunges 33% on lower quarterly earnings forecast

Uber declines after directing Q1 reservations below price quotes

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Indexes: Dow up 0.15%, S&P 500 down 0.08%, Nasdaq down 0.34%

(Updates with afternoon rates)

By Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta

Feb 5 (Reuters) -

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq slipped on Wednesday, with Alphabet the biggest drag after the tech giant's dour cloud profits and significant investments into synthetic intelligence dissatisfied investors, while a multitude of earnings contributed to the volatility.

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

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

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

AI-related stocks were rocked last week following the soaring popularity of an affordable Chinese artificial intelligence design developed by startup

DeepSeek

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

Advanced Micro Devices, meanwhile, lost 8.9% after CEO Lisa Su said the business'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 amid cooling need, helping curb cost development, a reading from the Institute for Supply Management showed.

Private payrolls rose by 183,000 tasks last month, compared to an estimated 150,000 boost, per economic experts polled by Reuters. The necessary January nonfarm payrolls report is anticipated to be launched on Friday.

Shares of Apple relieved 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 setiathome.berkeley.edu 0.08%, to 6,033.51 and the lost 70.17 points, or 0.34%, to 19,586.61.

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

Uber Technologies dropped 7.2% after the ride-hailing company forecast current-quarter reservations listed below price quotes.

Fiserv advanced 7.1% as the payments company beat estimates for fourth-quarter revenue, helped by strong demand in its banking and payments processing system.

Markets likewise tried to find developments on the tariffs front after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he remained in no hurry to speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping to attempt to defuse a new trade war in between the countries.

Richmond Fed president Thomas Barkin said the Fed was still leaning towards more rate cuts this year, however flagged uncertainty around the effect of new tariffs, migration, policies and other Trump administration initiatives.

Among top movers, FMC Corp plunged 33.6% after the agrichemicals producer forecast first-quarter earnings listed below estimates.

Johnson Controls leapt 11.1% as the building options company named Joakim Weidemanis as primary executive officer and raised its 2025 earnings projection.

Advancing problems surpassed 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 new 52-week highs and 12 new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite tape-recorded 81 new highs and 69 new lows.

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