Stocks close slightly lower as rally takes a breather ahead of Big Tech earnings
The S&P 500 slipped slightly from a record high on Tuesday as Wall Street geared up for the heart of corporate earnings season including reports from a slew of blue-chip companies and major tech players.
The broad equity benchmark dipped 0.2% to 3,849.57 after hitting a new intraday record earlier in the session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 22.90 points, or 0.1%, to 30,937.10. At one point, the 30-stock benchmark traded more than 150 points higher. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.1% from a record high to 13,626.06.
General Electric shares jumped 2.7% on its better-than-expected industrial free cash flow for the fourth quarter and a rosy outlook for the year. Johnson & Johnson popped more than 2% after the drugmaker’s earnings topped expectations. 3M also jumped 3.3% after strong results.
Tech giant Microsoft will announce its fiscal second-quarter earnings after the bell. Shares of Microsoft climbed more than 1%. Apple, Facebook, Caterpillar and Tesla are all set to report later this week.
Stock futures rise as Microsoft kicks off big-tech earnings on a high note
Futures contracts tied to the major U.S. equity indexes rose during the overnight session Tuesday as Wall Street pored over earnings results from Microsoft and awaited similar updates from Apple, Facebook and Tesla due Wednesday.
Nasdaq-100 futures outperformed with a gain of about 93 points, or 0.74%. Dow futures added 30 points and S&P 500 futures rose 8.25 points, or 0.25%.
A handful of stocks, including software giant Microsoft, dominated the trading action in the extended session.
Microsoft investors appeared pleased with the company’s performance in its fiscal second quarter, when it grew revenues 17% on a year-over-year basis. Adding to the optimism of Microsoft’s profit report was a jump in the company’s Intelligent Cloud unit, a segment investors think critical to the company’s future success.
Microsoft shares added 4.6% in after-hours trading.
Investors are likely hoping that Microsoft — the second-largest publicly traded company in the U.S. worth $1.76 trillion — and its solid earnings results herald similar success from Apple, Facebook and Tesla. All three companies are scheduled to report earnings Wednesday after the closing bell.
Apple, Microsoft, Tesla and Facebook represent four of the six-largest companies in the U.S. by market cap, meaning fluctuations in their stock prices have an outsized impact on the performance of the broader S&P 500.
Reference: CNBC
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