Hasbro and Mattel forecast slow holiday shopping season

TheStreet's J.D. Durkin brings the latest business headlines from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as markets close for trading Thursday, October 26. 

Full Video Transcript Below:

J.D. DURKIN: I'm J.D. Durkin, reporting from the New York Stock Exchange.

Stocks were lower to close out today's session. The Dow closed down 251 points, the Nasdaq closed 1.7% lower, and the S&P closed 1.1% lower. This comes as investors digest disappointing tech earnings. While earnings for big names like Microsoft  (MSFT) - Get Free Report and Meta  (META) - Get Free Report came in stronger than expectations, investors were overall unimpressed by the results, which showed signs of weakness in certain divisions.

Adding to these concerns is the stronger than expected growth in the third quarter. A preliminary estimate showed that the economy grew faster than expected last quarter—a sign that the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates even further.

In other news, we are less than a month away from the start of the holiday shopping season, and it may end up being a tough one for toymakers. Both Hasbro  (HAS) - Get Free Report and Mattel  (MAT) - Get Free Reportexpect toy and game sales to suffer as consumers continue to cut back amid ongoing inflation concerns.

Hasbro reported a 10% year-over-year drop on revenue in Q4. On the company's earnings call earlier today, CEO Chris Cocks said, "We have a cautious outlook on the holiday. We do not have a real solid view on where the market will go." Hasbro, which makes iconic toys and games like Play-Doh and Monopoly, originally predicted between a 3% and 6% drop in revenue for the year and is now projecting a decline of up to 15%.

And while fellow toymaker Mattel released a positive earnings report on Wednesday, the company said it was largely helped by a blockbuster Barbie bump and that it was cautious about its end-of-year outlook, saying, "The company is operating in a challenging macro-economic environment with higher volatility, including inflation, that may impact consumer demand."

Black Friday, the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season, falls on November 24.

That'll do it for your daily briefing. From the New York Stock Exchange, I'm J.D. Durkin with TheStreet.