US tech shares fall sharply after Alphabet and Microsoft earnings disappoint

Google parent Alphabet reported a severe slowdown in its search ads business, sending its shares down as much as 7.6 per cent. Photograph: Pawel Kopczynski/Reuters Tech stocks extended their slide on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq down 2 per cent at the opening bell after disappointing results from Alphabet and Microsoft. Google parent Alphabet reported a severe slowdown in its search ads business, sending its shares down as much as 7.6 per cent. Microsoft's stock slid 7.8 per cent after it warned that revenue growth from cloud computing had fallen. Shares in Meta, which reports later on Wednesday, shed 4 per…