US close: Stocks weaker as earnings season rolls on

Wall Street stocks finished in the red on Tuesday, as market participants digested earnings from some of the nation's biggest firms and held their breath ahead of a flurry of tech results after the close.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.24% at 35,058.52, while the S&P 500 lost 0.47% to 4,401.46, and the Nasdaq Composite was off 1.21% at 14,660.58.

The Dow closed 85.79 points lower on Tuesday, reversing gains recorded on the first day of a tech-heavy week on the earnings front.

On the macro front, demand for goods made to last more than three years grew a bit more slowly than anticipated last month, but economists said that the underlying trends remained strong.

According to the Department of Commerce, durable goods orders grew at a month-on-month clip of 0.8% to reach $257.7bn.

That was less than the 2.1% increase that economists had pencilled-in, but was offset in part by an upwards revision to May's increase from 2.3% to 3.2%.

Elsewhere, US house price gains accelerated further in May with the annual rate of increase rising at its fastest pace in over 30 years, the results of a closely-followed survey revealed.

In seasonally adjusted terms, the S&P Case Shiller national house price index rose by 1.7% month-on-month and by 16.6% year-on-year.

A separate index for the country's 20 largest cities meanwhile rose by 1.8% versus April, higher than consensus expectations for 1.5%, and by 17.0% from one year ago.

Still on data, the Conference Board's consumer confidence index was relatively unchanged in July, following gains in each of the prior five months, with the index now standing at 129.1, up from 128.9 in June.

The present situation index - based on consumers' assessment of current business and labour market conditions - rose from 159.6 to 160.3, while the expectations index - based on consumers' short-term outlook for income, business, and labour market conditions - was virtually unchanged at 108.4.

Lastly, the Richmond Fed's manufacturing index rose to 27.0 in July, up from 26.0 in June and well ahead of expectations for a print of 20.

The Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting also kicked off during the day, with investors awaiting insights into the central bank's monetary policy.

Corporate results were the primary focus of the session again, with several of the Street’s biggest names reporting throughout the course of the day.

3M slipped 0.6% after it increased its full-year earnings outlook, following a beat on second-quarter estimates, while General Electric rose 1.24% after its earnings also came in at the higher end of second-quarter forecasts.

Stanley Black & Decker lost 2.12% after it raised its full-year earnings outlook on the back of a second-quarter adjusted earnings beat, while United Parcel Service slid 6.99% after it beat revenue estimates as online shipments remained steady throughout the quarter.

Raytheon jumped 2.64% after it came in 10 cents above earnings per share estimates and posted quarterly revenues of $15.88bn, while JetBlue descended 6.91% after returning to profitability in the second quarter thanks to US government Covid-19 related aid.

Tesla shares reversed earlier gains to close down 1.95% after the company posted better-than-expected second-quarter earnings overnight, with quarterly net income exceeding $1.0bn for the first time.

Traders were still busy after the closing bell, however, with Alphabet, Apple, AMD, Starbucks, Chubb, Microsoft and Visa publishing their latest quarterly earnings after hours.

Dow Jones - Risers

McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $246.72 0.97%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $77.85 0.79%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $56.20 0.75%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $172.60 0.46%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $179.46 0.43%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $140.85 0.41%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $415.10 0.38%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $149.38 0.38%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $57.26 0.35%
Visa Inc. (V) $250.93 0.27%

Dow Jones - Fallers

Intel Corp. (INTC) $53.18 -2.08%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $243.51 -1.65%
Boeing Co. (BA) $222.36 -1.59%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $146.77 -1.49%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $327.49 -1.18%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $46.82 -0.91%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $286.54 -0.87%
3M Co. (MMM) $200.47 -0.60%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $209.86 -0.54%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $55.28 -0.34%

S&P 500 - Risers

F5 Networks Inc. (FFIV) $204.57 6.20%
Xerox Corp. (XRX) $24.81 5.04%
Pentair plc (PNR) $71.89 4.64%
Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX) $45.56 3.50%
Aon plc (AON) $259.58 3.19%
Edison International (EIX) $57.08 2.99%
Fiserv Inc. (FISV) $114.68 2.99%
Universal Health Services Inc. (UHS) $159.12 2.92%
Raytheon Technologies Corporation (RTX) $88.19 2.64%
Packaging Corp. Amer (PKG) $138.09 2.62%

S&P 500 - Fallers

Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. (LW) $65.84 -13.53%
United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) $195.19 -6.99%
Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) $84.05 -6.76%
Ipg Photonics Corp. (IPGP) $201.32 -5.41%
FedEx Corp. (FDX) $282.63 -5.00%
Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO) $11.37 -3.89%
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) $100.34 -3.82%
Xilinx Inc. (XLNX) $131.00 -3.28%
Invesco Ltd. (IVZ) $24.27 -3.23%
Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY) $26.26 -3.17%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers

Sirius XM Holdings Inc (SIRI) $6.71 5.17%
Fiserv Inc. (FISV) $114.68 2.99%
Trip.com Group Limited (TCOM) $25.99 2.52%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) $202.85 1.97%
DENTSPLY Sirona Inc. (XRAY) $64.80 1.84%
Henry Schein Inc. (HSIC) $78.68 1.68%
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (CHKP) $123.08 1.64%
Cerner Corp. (CERN) $79.35 1.35%
Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (BMRN) $78.33 1.27%
Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG) $975.08 0.93%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers

Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) $84.05 -6.76%
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) $100.34 -3.82%
Workday, Inc. (WDAY) $230.66 -3.33%
Xilinx Inc. (XLNX) $131.00 -3.28%
Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (TTWO) $167.50 -3.12%
KLA-Tencor Corp. (KLAC) $309.00 -3.02%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $62.36 -2.97%
American Airlines Group (AAL) $21.46 -2.81%
Baidu Inc. (BIDU) $157.83 -2.80%
Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) $622.59 -2.78%