US open: Stocks fall on disappointing Goldman Sachs quarterly earnings

US stocks were trading lower on Tuesday with the Dow weighed by Goldman Sachs, which reported weaker-than-expected first quarterly results, while the dollar fell.

At 1557 BST, Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.49% to 20,534.83, the S&P 500 fell 0.31% to 2,341.62, and the Nasdaq was 0.29% off at 5,840.06.

Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate was down 0.49% to $55.03 per barrel and Brent crude was 0.11% weaker at $52.59.

Earnings season was underway with numbers from Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Johnson & Johnson.

Goldman Sachs dropped 4.49% after the banking giant reported an earnings per share of $5.15 on revenue of $8.02bn, which was lower than the EPS of $5.31 on revenue of $8.44bn expected. This was the first time the bank missed EPS forecasts since the fourth quarter of 2015, according to Bespoke Investment Group.

Net revenues from bond, currency and commodities trading was flat at $1.69bn compared to last year and equities trading revenue fell 6%.

Meanwhile, the Bank of America slipped 0.72% despite its quarterly results topping forecasts and Johnson & Johnson also fell 3.24% after the pharmaceutical reported a drop in revenue.

Investors were also eyeing continued political risks with the growing tension between the US and North Korea after an attempted missile launch by North Korea on Sunday failed.

The dollar was weighed by weak inflation data released in the US on Good Friday and nervousness ahead of a meeting between US Vice President Mike Pence and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later on Tuesday as Pence sought to alleviate allies’ concerns about North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

The greenback fell 1.48% against the pound to 0.7841 on news of a snap UK general election on 8 June. Against the euro the dollar fell 0.49% to 0.9350 and versus the yen it declined 0.15% to 108.75.

In comments to the Financial Times, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said dollar strength is good over long periods of time. He agreed with Trump's view that strength in the dollar in the short term was hurting exports, but said this strength was a positive over the longer term.

Jasper Lawler, senior market analyst at London Capital Group, said: “The idea that Donald Trump is dramatically turning his back on his ‘America first’ policy as well as his comment that the dollar is ‘too strong’ are hurting the US currency. The more attention the new president pays to world stage including North Korea and Syria, the less chance there is of a reflated America.

“The comment from Treasury Secretary Mnuchin that long term dollar strength a good thing seems to have had only a fleeting positive effect on the greenback. We see a good chance USDJPY drops below 1.08 in the near term.”

On the data front, housing starts fell 6.8% in March to 1.22m units,below the 1.25m units expected. February's number was revised up to 1.30m units from the previously reported 1.29m. Housebuilding was up 9.2% compared to March 2016.

Meanwhile, building permits rose 3.6% to 1.26m units, compared with February when they fell 6%.

In other corporate news, UnitedHealth rose 0.98% after it lifted its 2017 revenue guidance.

United Continental Holdings fell 2.13% despite the airline reporting better-than-expected adjusted earnings late on Monday.

Post Holdings declined 1.7% after announcing that it is buying UK breakfast brand Weetabix Food Co for £1.4bn.