US open: Stocks lower amid earnings onslaught

Wall Street stocks were in the red early on Tuesday as market participants thumbed over a hefty slab of corporate earnings at the bell.

As of 1530 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.36% at 31,874.89, while the S&P 500 was 0.70% weaker at 3,938.93 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 1.20% softer at 11,641.39.

The Dow opened 115.15 points lower on Tuesday, reversing gains recorded in the previous session.

Earnings will be the session's primary focus again on Tuesday, with industrial giant 3M posting second-quarter earnings and revenue that beat expectations on the Street, while also cutting full-year sales growth and adjusted earnings forecasts and revealing it was looking to spin off its healthcare business, and US retail giant Walmart issuing its second profit warning since May overnight, with the group saying profits were set to fall as much as 13% in 2022 as the rising cost of food and fuel continues to impact customer spending.

Coca-Cola lifted its full-year revenue guidance as it posted a 12% rise in second-quarter revenues to $11.3bn, Kimberly-Clark reported Q2 profits that beat estimates and boosted sales and inflation forecasts, defence contractor Raytheon Technologies delivered second-quarter earnings that were better than expected, despite revenues coming in slightly short of estimates, and UPS published earnings that topped views despite recession fears and lower shipping volumes.

General Electric posted higher quarterly earnings thanks to a recovery in the aviation industry, General Motors reported Q2 earnings that missed estimates as ongoing supply chain woes impacted profitability, and McDonald's delivered a 3% year-on-year contraction in Q2 revenues as a result of its exit from Russia and a weakened Euro.

Still to come, Alphabet, Microsoft, Chubb, and Chipotle will publish their latest quarterly numbers after the closing bell.

On the macro front, the Conference Board's consumer confidence index fell to 95.7 in July, down 2.7 points from June, with the present situation index falling from 147.2 to 141.3 and the expectations index slipping from 65.8 to 65.3.

Lynn Franco, senior director of economic indicators at the Conference Board, said: "The decrease was driven primarily by a decline in the Present Situation Index — a sign growth has slowed at the start of Q3. The expectations index held relatively steady, but remained well below a reading of 80, suggesting recession risks persist. Concerns about inflation—rising gas and food prices, in particular—continued to weigh on consumers."

Elsewhere, new home sales shrank 8.1% month-on-month in June to hit a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 590,000 in June, according to the Census Bureau, well below market expectations for a print of 660,000.

On another note, the Federal Housing Finance Agency's house price index increased to 398.1 points in May, up from April's downwardly revised print of 392.7 points.

Finally, the Richmond Fed's manufacturing index improved from a reading -9 to 0 in June.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com