Asian equities were mixed Thursday after Google parent Alphabet reported quarterly revenue that missed estimates, knocking its shares down roughly 10% in extended trading and dragging Nasdaq futures 1% lower.
Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.2% to finish at 64,073.17, while South Korea's Kospi tumbled 2.2% to 5,880.25. Taiwan's Taiex declined 1.9%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng inched up less than 0.1% to 23,101.86, and the Shanghai Composite slipped 0.9% to 3,647.12. Australia's main gauge rose 0.5% to 8,888.50, The Independent reported.
The earnings shortfall erased nearly $400 billion from Alphabet's market capitalization, according to CNA. The company posted third-quarter revenue of $127.58 billion, shy of the $127.97 billion analysts projected, with earnings per share of $2.12 versus a consensus near $3.01. Net income dropped to $26.17 billion from $34.98 billion a year earlier, partly because of an $8.7 billion loss on equity investments.
Samsung Electronics saw operating profit surge nearly ninefold to a record on booming AI chip demand, yet its stock fell more than 4% and pulled the wider Kospi down 2.6% after a 7% jump the previous session. SK Hynix added 1.3% following an 11% rally Wednesday on strong results.
"The reason why Alphabet is down is because their traditional revenue service of ad generation has been impacted by the very thing which is the AI boom," Jamie Hannah, deputy head of investments at VanEck, told CNA. "Both of Alphabet and Microsoft confirmed that the AI revenue generation is still solid. We saw that through the data center growth, the cloud services."
Microsoft shares climbed nearly 3% after hours on better-than-projected cash flows.
The Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged Wednesday as anticipated, though two officials favored an increase. Chair Kevin Warsh expressed greater confidence about inflation, triggering a Treasury rally. The 10-year U.S. yield fell below 5.00% after briefly exceeding 5.04%.
Brent crude declined 1.2% to $110.32 a barrel. U.S. benchmark crude lost 1.3% to $101.46. The dollar softened to 157.72 yen from 157.84.
Investors now await earnings from Amazon and Intel later Thursday, along with the European Central Bank's policy decision.