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FMC plunges 33% on lower quarterly profits projection

Uber declines after guiding Q1 bookings below estimates

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Indexes: Dow up 0.15%, S&P 500 down 0.08%, Nasdaq down 0.34%

(Updates with afternoon rates)

By Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta

Feb 5 (Reuters) -

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq slipped on Wednesday, with Alphabet the greatest drag after the tech giant's ugly cloud revenue and substantial financial investments into synthetic intelligence disappointed investors, while a slew of earnings contributed to the volatility.

Google-parent Alphabet dropped 8.2% after posting downbeat cloud income growth and earmarking a higher-than-expected $75 billion for its AI buildout this year.

"The market has some proof to recommend that there are other business that perhaps doing it less expensive, better, quicker, quicker," said Dave Grecsek, handling director in preparation strategy and research at Aspiriant.

"So what is the wisdom of continuing to maintain high capex?"

AI-related stocks were rocked recently following the skyrocketing popularity of a low-cost Chinese expert system model established by start-up

DeepSeek

. Nvidia, one of the business that was the worst hit, was up 3.8% on the day.

Advanced Micro Devices, meanwhile, lost 8.9% after CEO Lisa Su said the company's current-quarter data center sales - a proxy for its AI profits - would fall about 7% from the previous quarter.

On the data front, U.S. services sector activity all of a sudden slowed in January amidst cooling need, helping curb rate development, a reading from the Institute for Supply Management showed.

Private payrolls rose by 183,000 tasks last month, compared with an estimated 150,000 boost, per economists polled by Reuters. The all-important January nonfarm payrolls report is anticipated to be launched on Friday.

Shares of Apple reduced 1.2% as Bloomberg News reported that China's antitrust regulator was preparing for a possible investigation of the iPhone maker.

At 11:33 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 65.83 points, or 0.15%, to 44,621.87, the S&P 500 lost 4.37 points, or 0.08%, to 6,033.51 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 70.17 points, or 0.34%, to 19,586.61.

Eight of the 11 S&P 500 sectors traded higher, though communication services' over 3% fall obscured gains.

Uber Technologies dropped 7.2% after the ride-hailing company anticipated current-quarter bookings below estimates.

Fiserv advanced 7.1% as the payments firm beat estimates for fourth-quarter revenue, assisted by strong need in its banking and payments processing system.

Markets also searched for developments on the tariffs front after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he remained in no rush to talk to Chinese President Xi Jinping to try to pacify a new trade war between the nations.

Richmond Fed president Thomas Barkin said the Fed was still leaning towards more rate cuts this year, but flagged uncertainty around the effect of new tariffs, immigration, policies and other Trump administration efforts.

Among leading movers, FMC Corp plunged 33.6% after the agrichemicals producer forecast first-quarter below estimates.

Johnson Controls jumped 11.1% as the building services business called Joakim Weidemanis as primary executive officer and raised its 2025 profit projection.

Advancing issues surpassed decliners by a 2.03-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.6-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 published 27 brand-new 52-week highs and 12 brand-new lows, online-learning-initiative.org while the Nasdaq Composite taped 81 new highs and 69 brand-new lows.

(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai, Devika Syamnath and Maju Samuel)