After a disappointing result from Meta stocks and indices are now on the back foot as investors become cautious.

Meta Platforms dropped over 15% last night on light revised revenue forecasts for the remainder of the year. Despite this, the stock is still up 16-18% for the year. With markets always feeling a bearish outlook going into Thursday, today presents investors with an abundance of data such as US Q1 GDP & US jobless claims, both scheduled for 1.30 pm UK time.

Looking over the the earnings reports Microsoft, Alphabet & intel are due to report after the bell (9pm onward UK time) and Merck, Comcast and CAT are due to report before the bell (between 12-2.30 pm UK time).

In the UK:

• Barclays also reported thier Q1 results with drops in revenue and profit, though are up 3% on the day.
• Sainsbury's saw an increase in revenue and profit driven by higher grocery shopping, despite this, the stock is down 2.2% on the day.
• AstraZeneca also reported strong growth up 19% YoY with the stock up 5.5% on the day

Another factor to watch out for is the US Congress bill providing aid to Ukraine. It is expected that a reasonable proportion of the funding is going to go on US companies' development projects to assist Ukraine such as Boeing, L3Harris & Northrop Grumman to name a few.