NEW YORK: US stocks Friday slumped in early trade following some disappointing earnings reports and as investors kept an eye on rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
About 40 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 102.39 points (0.62 percent) to 16,399.26.
The broad-based S&P 500 declined 8.86 (0.47 percent) to 1,869.75, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index sank 39.82 (0.96 percent) to 4,108.52.
The batch of earnings reports since the market closed Thursday were weak. Ford Motor missed expectations, while Visa and Amazon gave outlooks that disappointed analysts.
Ukraine remained in the spotlight after Russia Thursday ordered new military exercises on the border of Ukraine. On Friday, US President Barack Obama said he would consult key European leaders on imposing new sanctions against Russia.
Germany's foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, warned Friday that time is running out for Russia "to end this madness."
Investors sold off Amazon after revenues soared 23 percent to nearly $20 billion but the company gave a weak outlook on profit margins. Bank of America Merrill Lynch cut its 2014 profit forecast, saying "Amazon is throwing a lot out there to try to drive growth." Shares lost 8.1 percent.
Ford Motor reported weaker first-quarter sales in its key North America market amid severe winter weather, notching a 39 percent drop in earnings that missed expectations. Shares fell 3.2 percent.
Dow member Visa said profits rose 20.5 percent to $1.6 billion. But analysts at Citigroup noted the credit and debit card company lowered the range of its estimate for the upper range on revenue growth to 11 percent from 13 percent. Shares fell 3.8 percent.
Dow member Microsoft advanced 1.1 percent as earnings of 68 cents per share beat expectations by five cents. New chief executive Satya Nadella said the company is making headway in the increasingly important consumer market with services such as its Bing search engine and Office 365 Home suite of programs hosted in the Internet cloud.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 2.66 percent from 2.69 percent Thursday, while the 30-year dropped to 3.44 percent from 3.46 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
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