Investing.com -- Stocks were mixed, as blue chips sank on Wednesday while the tech sector soared after positive earnings from Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).
There are fresh fears about the state of the banking system as First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) shares continue to come under extreme pressure. They were down another 29% on Wednesday and are now down 95% for the year despite a show of support in March from a group of large banks, which injected $30 billion of deposits.
The worries are overshadowing strong earnings reports from Microsoft and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), which are racing each other and competitors to grab share in artificial intelligence applications. Microsoft's shares rose on Wednesday even though U.K. competition regulators blocked its proposed deal for game maker Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI).
More earnings are set to pour out the remainder of this week and next week, with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) on deck in the coming days.
Until then, investors are awaiting a first-quarter read of gross domestic product and personal consumption expenditure data on Friday, a key inflation report the Federal Reserve closely monitors.
The Fed heads into its next policy meeting in May with expectations it will raise the benchmark rate another quarter of a percentage point.
Here are three things that could affect markets tomorrow:
1. Amazon earnings
E-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) is expected to report earnings of 21 cents a share on revenue of $124.5B, but analysts will be listening to what it says about its web services, cloud computing division and streaming customers.
2. Mastercard reports
Card company Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) is expected to report earnings per share of $2.71 on revenue of $5.64B, and analysts will be waiting to hear what it says about consumer credit quality and spending trends.
3. Drug earnings
Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is expected to report earnings per share of $1.69 on revenue of $6.84B, while Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) is expected to report earnings per share of $1.35 on revenue of $13.8B.