US close: Wall Street slips on rising bond yields

Wall Street fell back amid a torrent of quarterly earnings and another leg higher for market interest rates.

By closing bell the Dow Jones Industrial Average had slipped 0.16% to 18,169.68 points, the S&P 500 gave back 0.30% to 2,133.04 points and the Nasdaq was off 0.65% to 5,215.97 points.

"The market reaction to Q3 results has been rather muted so far and asymmetric to the downside. The median outperformance of the US stocks that beat estimates is 0.6% on the results day, while those that miss estimates underperform by 2.3%," JP Morgan strategist Emmanuel Cau said in a research report sent to clients overnight.

Benchmark 10-year US Treasury note yields rose six basis points to 1.85% despite mixed economic data, with the odds of a 25 basis point rate hike implied by Fed funds futures creeping higher to 78.5% according to the CME´s Fed Watch tool.

Google parent Alphabet and Amazon.com were to publish results after the close.

By sectors, interest rate sensitive REITs fared worst, while the KBW Bank Index added 0.47% to 75.10.

So-called 'core' orders for capital goods dropped by 1.2% over the month in September (consensus: 0.0%).

Reacting to the figures, Rob Martin and Blerina Uruci from Barclays Research said: "We view the weakness in orders and shipments as downside risk to our forecast for the industrial sector."

Nevertheless, in a later note Uruci told clients: "September durable goods orders released today did little to change the strong signal from the advance trade report, and as a result, we decided to take its implications onboard for our Q3 GDP forecast."

She lifted her tracking estimate for third quarter GDP from 2.5% to 3.0%.

In other data released on Thursday, figures from the Labor Department showed that initial jobless claims declined by 3,000 to 258,000 from an upwardly-revised 261,000, economists had expected a drop to 255,000.

This was the 86th consecutive week of initial claims below 300,000 – the longest streak since 1970.

Shares were up 0.88% in Tesla Motors as the carmaker reported that it made a surprise profit and better than expected revenue, whereas shares in Ford Motor Company were down 1.6% after it said its third quarter profit fell 56% due to recall costs, but its 26 cents per share operating profit exceeded expectations.

Twitter edged up 0.64% as it beat profit and sales expectations but said it was to cut 9% of its workforce amid uncertainty over a potential takeover.

Oil and gas explorer ConocoPhillips’ shares rose 5.26% as it reported that its 66 cents per share quarterly adjusted loss was narrower than expected of 68 cents.

Dow Jones - Risers

Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $48.54 1.91%
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DD) $69.88 1.69%
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) $153.35 1.01%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $115.70 1.00%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $61.29 0.69%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $94.02 0.57%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $177.88 0.38%
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) $69.83 0.34%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $32.48 0.25%
Visa Inc. (V) $81.92 0.21%

Dow Jones - Fallers

Boeing Co. (BA) $143.31 -1.53%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $83.01 -1.33%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $99.92 -1.26%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $114.48 -0.96%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $86.58 -0.94%
United Technologies Corp. (UTX) $100.07 -0.93%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $60.10 -0.87%
General Electric Co. (GE) $28.63 -0.83%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $42.12 -0.75%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $108.02 -0.74%

S&P 500 - Risers

Level 3 Communications, Inc. (LVLT) $51.87 10.55%
F5 Networks Inc. (FFIV) $130.99 9.58%
Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALXN) $131.37 8.04%
Celgene Corp. (CELG) $104.72 6.41%
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) $51.96 5.42%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $59.58 5.41%
ConocoPhillips (COP) $44.00 5.26%
CenturyLink Inc. (CTL) $31.06 5.24%
Southwestern Energy Co. (SWN) $10.87 3.92%
Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. (COG) $21.65 3.44%

S&P 500 - Fallers

O'Reilly Automotive Inc. (ORLY) $253.00 -8.72%
Teradata Corp. (TDC) $27.67 -8.08%
National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NOV) $33.70 -7.82%
Extra Space Storage (EXR) $70.59 -7.39%
L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (LLL) $137.88 -7.37%
Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. (MJN) $74.63 -7.35%
Murphy Oil Corp. (MUR) $27.60 -7.10%
Robert Half International Inc. (RHI) $36.77 -6.86%
News Corp Class A (NWSA) $12.22 -5.34%
Public Storage (PSA) $202.25 -5.17%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers

Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALXN) $131.37 8.04%
Celgene Corp. (CELG) $104.72 6.41%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $59.58 5.41%
QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $70.09 2.77%
Akamai Technologies Inc. (AKAM) $68.81 1.64%
American Airlines Group (AAL) $39.91 1.50%
Baidu Inc. (BIDU) $175.10 1.32%
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $160.57 0.99%
Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA) $204.01 0.88%
Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (CTSH) $51.30 0.85%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers

O'Reilly Automotive Inc. (ORLY) $253.00 -8.72%
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. - Ordinary Shares (NCLH) $35.71 -5.95%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) $75.84 -3.65%
Stericycle Inc. (SRCL) $73.96 -3.41%
Fiserv Inc. (FISV) $96.75 -3.24%
Sirius XM Holdings Inc (SIRI) $4.11 -3.07%
Dollar Tree Inc (DLTR) $74.45 -3.06%
Liberty Media Corporation - Class A (LMCA) $27.25 -3.06%
Liberty Media Corporation - Series C (LMCK) $26.82 -2.69%
Ctrip.Com International Ltd. Ads (CTRP) $45.47 -2.61%