US stocks and gold struggle around midday trading. Here's why.

U.S. stocks are struggling, hitting a one-week low around midday amid souring sentiment on software companies. Microsoft, one of the "Magnificent 7" megacap tech companies with considerable weight in major stock indexes, tumbled despite beating earnings and revenue forecasts in its fiscal second quarter as investors focused on slower-than-expected growth in its cloud computing business and higher-than-expected spending on data centers and other AI infrastructure. Shares in the Redmond, Washington-based ...