The main stock indices on Wall Street opened lower on Wednesday, as Netflix kicked off the quarterly earnings report season for tech giants with a disappointing report. Demand for stocks was also affected by concerns over the rising pace of global coronavirus infections. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 13 points, or 0.04%, to 33,808.3 points. The S&P 500 opened up 6.5 points, or 0.16%, to 4,128.42 points, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 40.5 points, or 0.29%, to 13,745.772 points.
Netflix's shares plummeted by 10% in after-hours trading on Tuesday following the release of its quarterly results, which showed that the number of new subscribers in the first quarter was significantly below expectations. This led the company to lose $25 billion in market value within hours. The company reported an increase of about 4 million new subscribers, falling short of expectations for an addition of 6.3 million subscribers. Quarterly profits were $1.5 billion, with revenues reaching $7.2 billion, aligning with forecasts. Netflix had recorded a record number of new subscribers in the first quarter of last year due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, totaling 15.8 million subscribers.
