04:04 PM EDT, 07/24/2024 (MT Newswires) -- US equity indexes closed lower Wednesday after quarterly results from heavyweights Tesla (TSLA) and Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) called into question the ability of the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks to continue carrying markets.

* Tesla's shares were down over 12% as the electric vehicle maker late Tuesday posted Q2 earnings that fell short of market expectations, impacted by lower vehicle prices and restructuring charges.

* Meanwhile, Alphabet's class A and C shares were down nearly 5% each as its management flagged caution about decelerating advertisement trends and more difficult comparisons in the second half of the year.

* In economic news, new-home sales in the US fell unexpectedly last month while median prices at the national level returned to sequential growth, US government data showed. New-home sales slowed to a 617,000 annual rate in June from an upwardly revised 621,000 rate in May, well below a 640,000 rate expected and down 7.4% from the level in June 2023.

* September West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose $0.70 to $77.66 per barrel, while September Brent crude, the global benchmark, was last seen up $0.65 at $81.66 as total crude oil inventories fell by 3.1 million barrels in the week ended July 19, with commercial oil inventories down 3.7 million barrels and stocks in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve up 700,000 barrels.

* AT&T's ( T ) shares were up 5.3% as the telecommunication giant added more postpaid phone subscribers than expected in Q2 and maintained its full-year earnings outlook.

* Lamb Weston ( LW ) was down 28% as it guided for an annual decline in fiscal 2025 earnings after posting an unexpected decrease in revenue and below-forecast earnings for its Q4 amid challenging market dynamics.