The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 400 points by mid-morning Thursday, joining sharp declines in the Nasdaq and S&P 500, following weaker-than-expected earnings reports from Microsoft (MSFT-5.78%) and Meta(META-4.19%). Supermicrocomputer (SMCI-13.82%) Shares continued to fall after that the dismissal of Ernst & Young, the company’s accountant, and now it is confronted possible delisting from the Nasdaq

Stocks of crypto-friendly companies like Coinbase (MINT-10.11%), MicroStrategy (MSTR-1.82%), and Robinhood (CAP-16.98%) also slipped after releasing their earnings a day earlier.

The Dow Jones fell 426 points, or 1.04%, in mid-morning trading, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 440 points, or 2.3%. The S&P 500 fell 1.4%.

Meta shares fell about 3% in Thursday morning trading, while Microsoft shares fell more than 5%.

Positive news on the economic front came in the form of a significant decline in initial US jobless claims to a five-month low, indicating a resilient labor market. The Labor Office reported this on Thursday that initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 216,000 for the week ended Oct. 26, exceeding economists’ expectations of 230,000 claims.

And inflation continues to cool, as the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index – the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge – rose 2.1% year-over-year in September, up from 2.3% in August. data released Thursday. This slowdown in inflation, almost all the way to the Fed’s target of 2% annual inflation, was a hopeful signal for both consumers and the Fed as it plans to keep cutting rates.

Investors will be keeping an eye on Apple (AAPL-1.48%) and Amazon (AMZN-3.37%) earnings after the closing bell.

What to expect from Apple earnings

Apples (AAPL-1.48%) quarterly report Thursday will be the first glimpse of revenue since Apple unveiled its latest series of iPhones And new artificial intelligence featuresknown as Apple Intelligenceat its annual meeting in early September – and Wall Street expects a strong quarter of annual growth.

Analysts expect Apple’s fiscal fourth quarter earnings of $1.60, according to estimates from FactSet (FDS+0.29%). Net profit is expected to reach $24.24 billion, which would represent growth of more than 5% from the same period a year ago.

Overall, Apple has had a strong year. Shares are up about 25% this year, narrowly beating the S&P 500 index.

What to expect from Amazon’s earnings

Amazon will then report third-quarter results on Thursday somewhat lacking expectations in his last quarter.

The retail and cloud giant is expected to report revenue of $157.3 billion for the quarter ending in September, according to analyst estimates compiled by FactSet. Amazon is expected to report earnings per share (or EPS) of $1.14. Last quarter, the company issued lower-than-expected guidance for the third quarter, with revenue expectations in the range of $154 billion to $158.5 billion – or between 8% and 11% annualized.

In the second quarter Amazon reported sales of $148 billion – an increase of 10% from the previous year, but still below expectations of $148.7 billion, according to FactSet. However, the company reported net income of $13.5 billion in the second quarter, which was above expectations of $11 billion.

Amazon Web Services, Amazon’s cloud computing division, reported revenue of $26.3 billion, up 19% year over year.

– Rocio Fabbro and Britney Nguyen contributed to this article.