Investing.com – Wall Street fell on Thursday as Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) struck a bitter note to start the tech sector's earnings season.
The streaming site missed targets for new subscribers, adding only 2.7 million new subscribers in the second-quarter, compared to guidance of 5 million. The number of its U.S. subscribers fell for the first time in eight years.
"The failure of Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) to meet its already-low subscriber target will hit sentiment. It's not a great start to the "big tech" earnings season," said Ken Odeluga, analyst at Cityindex.
Technology stocks were down, with Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) inching down 0.3% and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) falling 0.3%, while Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) lost 0.5%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 52 points or 0.2% by 9:47 AM ET (13:47 GMT), while the S&P 500 was down 3 points or 0.1% and the Nasdaq composite lost 10 points or 0.1%.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) gained 1% after its earnings fell by less than expected, thanks to a strong performance by its wealth and investment management divisions.
Honeywell International (NYSE:HON) gained 1.5% after it raised its full-year sales and profit forecasts, while UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH) slipped 2.6% despite reporting a 13% rise in second-quarter profit. eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) jumped 5.6% after it reported a strong quarter, while Philip Morris (NYSE:PM) was up 6.5% after its earnings and revenue beat forecasts.
Union Pacific (NYSE:UNP) jumped 4.5% after better-than-expected quarterly figures reassured investors about the health of the freight industry, seen by many as a bellwether for the economy. The railroad company tumbled 6.4% on Wednesday when rival CSX (NASDAQ:CSX) issued a revenue warning.
In commodities, crude oil fell 0.1% to $56.77 a barrel. Gold futures slipped 0.4% to $1,418.05 a troy ounce, while the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, gained 0.1% to 96.907.
-Reuters contributed to this report.