Asian shares fall as Alphabet earnings miss drags Wall St futures lower

Asian shares declined on Thursday as Alphabet's earnings fell short, causing Wall Street futures to drop. The tech giant's shares plunged 10% in extended trading, erasing nearly $400 billion from its market value. This move affected the Nasdaq futures, which slipped 1%. In contrast, Microsoft surpassed expectations with strong cash flows, boosting its shares by 3%.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve maintained interest rates as expected, but two members advocated for a hike. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh expressed a more optimistic view on inflation during his press conference, boosting Treasuries. However, the critical test came from earnings reports. Samsung Electronics reported a nearly ninefold increase in operating profit to a record high, though its shares still fell over 4% and dragged the KOSPI index down 2.6% after a previous surge.

The MSCI Asia-Pacific index excluding Japan slipped 0.7%, while Japan's Nikkei gained only 0.3%. Mainland China's blue chips dropped 0.9%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.2%. Alphabet's decline was attributed to the impact of the AI boom on its traditional ad revenue, leading to mixed results for Google.