Lyft shares plunge more than 35% on dismal earnings outlook

The index Nasdaq fell this Friday, pressured by the rise in the yield of US Treasury bonds, while the shares of the passenger transport company Lyft slumped on the back of grim earnings forecasts.

At 15:09 GMT, the Industrial Average Dow Jones It was up 0.18 points, or 0%, at 33,700.06. The index S&P 500 It was down 9.72 points, or 0.24%, at $4,071.78; and the Nasdaq Composite yielded 92.48 points, or 0.78%, to 11,697.10 units.

The Nasdaq was facing its first weekly decline of the year, while the S&P500 and Dow were set to post declines in a week dominated by hawkish comments from stock policymakers. Federal Reserve and earnings reports from more than half of S&P constituents.

Lyft slumped 35.3% as its profit forecast for the current quarter came in well below estimates and it also cut prices, raising concerns that it was lagging behind its biggest rival Uber. Uber shares were down 3.6 percent.

The yield on the 10-year notes touched its highest level in more than a month after a 30-year bond auction that saw weak demand.

Apple, Amazon, Microsoft y Tesla they yielded between 0.6% and 4.4 percent. Rising bond returns were testing growth stock valuations.

“If Treasuries are 4% risk free, why risk money in stocks?” said Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments. “It definitely impacts NASDAQ 100 type stocks because they are very sensitive to interest rates.”

Eight of the S&P’s 11 major sectors declined, led by a 1.3% decline in consumer discretionary. The energy sector added 2.2%, as crude prices rose on Russian plans to cut oil supplies.

erp