US close: Dow Jones wraps up best month since 1976 with losses

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Wall Street stocks closed lower on the final day of trading for October but the blue-chip Dow Jones still managed to deliver its best monthly performance in almost half a century.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.39% at 32,732.95, while the S&P 500 shed 0.75% to 3,871.98 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.03% weaker at 10,988.15.

The Dow closed 128.85 points lower on Monday, taking a bite out of gains recorded in the previous session.

However, despite the loss and a somewhat mixed Q3 earnings season, the Dow carved out its best month since 1976.

In terms of Monday's earnings, Loews reported a drop in third-quarter profits from $220.0m to $130.0m despite a 2.7% rise in revenues to $3.46bn, while shares Goodyear Tire & Rubber slumped in extended trading after the group posted disappointing Q3 results due to inflation and a stronger greenback.

Earnings will continue to be in focus over the next five days, with Uber, Pfizer, Fox, Airbnb, and AMD all set to report throughout the course of the week.

On the macro front, the Chicago purchasing managers' index dropped to 45.20 in October, according to the Institute for Supply Management, down from 45.70 points in September and the lowest reading seen since June 2020. Economists had pencilled-in a reading of 47.

Elsewhere, the Dallas Federal Reserve's manufacturing index fell from 17.2 in September to 19.4 in October, with the production index edging down three points to 6.0 and the new orders index slipping to -8.8, its fifth month in a row in negative territory.

Market participants also held out for the latest Federal Reserve meeting, set to kick off on Tuesday, with the central bank widely expected to hike rates by three-quarters of a percentage yet again. Traders will also look for any signs that the Fed may halt its interest rate rises in the near future.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $184.46 1.37%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $344.51 0.79%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $555.30 0.71%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $106.61 0.56%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $181.20 0.51%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $101.20 0.43%
Honeywell International Inc. (HON) $0.00 0.00%
Dowdupont Inc. (DWDP) $0.00 0.00%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $142.25 -0.13%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $125.88 -0.16%