In October, the benchmark indices saw their biggest monthly gain since last year, buoyed by stellar third-quarterly earnings reports from several companies. However, mega tech players Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) missed sales estimates in their recently released results, due primarily to supply chain issues. Read on, let’s discuss. The S&P 500 reported its best month since November 2020, rising to record highs in October. Of the S&P 500 companies that reported earnings in October (approximately 50% did), more than 80% beat Wall Street analysts’ estimates, despite global supply chain issues.
However, the recently released results of some big tech companies disappointed investors. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) missed analyst estimates due to the semiconductor chip shortage for iPhones, iPads, and Macs. The shortage proved to be worse than expected and cost the company $6 billion. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) also has had a disappointing quarter, with declining sales growth. Moreover, the company expects its costs to increase in the current quarter due to the supply strain, labor shortages, and high shipping costs.
On top of that, Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar introduced bipartisan legislation that could rein in big tech, if passed, by prohibiting tech giants from advertising their own products and services over others, on their platform. The bill marks the latest in a string of legislation that Democrats and Republicans have introduced to curb the influence of these mega-sized companies.