U.S. Stocks Seeing Modest Weakness In Reaction To Latest Earnings News

Stocks have moved modestly lower in morning trading on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 pulling back off yesterday’s record closing highs. Selling pressure has remained relatively subdued, however, limiting the downside for the major averages.

Currently, the major averages are off their lows of the session but still in negative territory. The Dow is down 23.58 points or 0.1 percent at 33,957.99, the Nasdaq is down 48.28 points or 0.3 percent at 14,090.49 and the S&P 500 is down 4.42 points or 0.1 percent at 4,183.20.

The modest weakness on Wall Street partly reflects a negative reaction to some of the earnings news from big-name companies.

Shares of Tesla (TSLA) have moved sharply lower even though the electric car maker reported better than expected first quarter results.

Conglomerates General Electric (GE) and 3M (MMM) have also moved to the downside despite reporting first quarter earnings that beat expectations.

On the other hand, shares of UPS (UPS) have spiked after the delivery giant reported first quarter results that exceeded analyst estimates on both the top and bottom lines.

Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), Advance Micro Devices (AMD), and Microsoft (MSFT) are among the companies due to report their results after the close of today’s trading.

However, traders seem reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

The Fed is widely expected to maintain its ultra-easy monetary policy, but traders will be paying close attention to any changes to the accompanying statement that may signal a shift in the near future.

In U.S. economic news, the Conference Board released a report showing consumer confidence reached its highest level since February of 2020 in the month of April.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index jumped to 121.7 in April after spiking to a revised 109.0 in March.

Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to rise to 112.0 from the 109.7 originally reported for the previous month.

Reflecting the relatively lackluster performance by the broader markets, most of the major sectors are showing only modest moves on the day.

Oil service and semiconductor stocks are seeing some weakness, while housing and tobacco stocks have moved to the upside.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Tuesday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index fell by 0.5 percent, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index dipped by 0.2 percent.

The major European markets have also shown modest moves to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index has edged down by 0.1 percent, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index are both down by 0.3 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries are seeing modest weakness after ending the previous session nearly flat. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 1.4 basis points at 1.584 percent.