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 company were last down 12% and on track for their worst day since March 2020.

But Microsoft wasn't alone. Other software companies like ServiceNow, German business software company SAP and Salesforce also saw heavy selling.

It's been a “get me out of this group” type selling," said William Beavington at investment firm Jefferies. "Even when we get a technical bounce like we saw late last week, any sort of pop in this group is just going to be sold."

At 12:43 p.m. ET, the broad S&P 500 index was down 0.68%, or 47.61 points, at 6,930.42, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq shed 1.45%, or 346.155 points, to 23,511.292. The blue-chip Dow dropped 0.17%, or 85.09 points, to 48,930.51.

Companies outside of the software sector fared better. For example,

Equipment maker Caterpillar and payments processor Mastercard each rose after improved year-over-year quarterly results.

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin forecast 2026 earnings above Wall Street expectations.

Southwest Airlines expected strong full-year profits.

IBM beat earnings estimates in the final three months of its fiscal year.

Social media giant Meta saw strong sales in the first three months of its fiscal year.

Gold prices were choppy. After reaching a record high above $5,500 per ounce earlier in the session, they fell as investors locked in some profits. They've recently recovered some losses and were last up 1.19%

Even with the decline, gold prices are on track for their best month since the 1980s amid economic and geopolitical uncertainty.

Medora Lee is a money, markets and personal finance reporter at USA TODAY. You can reach her at mjlee@usatoday.com and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday morning.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why is the stock market down today? Microsoft takes a hit