Wall Street drifts lower, ASX set to dip

Wall Street’s lull stretched into a second day, as US stocks drifted to a mixed close on a quiet Wednesday session.

The S&P 500 finished virtually unchanged after flipping between modest gains and losses through the day. It was coming off a very slight gain from Tuesday, which followed a big three-day winning streak. The Dow Jones rose 0.4 per cent and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.2 per cent.

The Australian sharemarket is set to retreat, with futures at 6.59am AEST pointing to a fall of 23 points, or 0.3 per cent, at the open. The ASX added 0.1 per cent on Wednesday.

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Uber Technologies slumped 5.7 per cent after reporting worse results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also gave a forecasted range for bookings in the current quarter whose midpoint fell below analysts’ estimates.

Shopify tumbled 18.6 per cent despite reporting better profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company, which helps businesses sell things online, said its revenue growth would likely slow this quarter and that it would likely make less profit off each $1 in revenue.

Match Group sank 5.4 per cent despite topping profit expectations. The company behind Tinder, Hinge and other apps for connecting people with each other gave a forecast for revenue in the current quarter that fell short of what analysts were expecting. It said its efforts to make Tinder better for women and Gen Z customers in particular have hurt some performance measurements in the short term.

Intel fell 2.2 per cent after saying the US Commerce Department revoked licenses for exports to a Chinese customer. That could cause its revenue for the current quarter to fall below the midpoint of the forecasted range it had earlier given.

They helped to offset Lyft, which revved 7.1 per cent higher after it topped expectations for profit and revenue. It said growth was particularly strong for early-morning, commute and weekend-evening trips.