Market Roundup
U.S. stocks snapped a three-day winning streak Tuesday as weak company earnings and outlooks weighed on the market.
Indexes wavered between small gains and losses most of the day before settling slightly lower. The slide in crude oil prices deepened.
Investors are mostly focused on corporate America the next couple of weeks as the third-quarter earnings season unfolds. This week and next week are particularly heavy, with big companies including Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble and Apple reporting earnings.
Traders are trying to glean whether the global economy is slowing and how U.S. firms are coping with factors like the stronger dollar, which can crimp profits for companies as their goods become pricier overseas.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 13.43 points, or 0.1%, to 17,217.11. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 2.89 points, or 0.1%, to 2,030.77. The Nasdaq shed 24.50 points, or 0.5%, to 4,880.97.
The Dow is down 3.4% this year, and the S&P 500 is off 1.4%. The Nasdaq is up 3.1% for the year.
Weak hardware sales and the effect of the strong dollar hurt IBM’s results in the third quarter. The company, which reported its latest results late Monday, was among the stocks to slump Tuesday as investors sized up earnings. The stock weighed heavily on the 30stock Dow, losing $8.58, or 5.7%, to $140.64.
Harley-Davidson sank 13.9% after the company reported a drop in third-quarter profit and cut its forecasts for motorcycle shipments. Harley shares slid $7.80 to $48.25.
SanDisk climbed 4.4% on media reports indicating that the data storage company was in advanced talks to sell itself to rival Western Digital. SanDisk gained $3.19 to $75.19. Western Digital fell $5.62, or 7%, to $74.86.
Investors also bid up shares in Team Health Holdings on news that AmSurg is offering to buy the health care staffing and services company in a cash-and-stock deal worth about $7.8 billion. Team Health vaulted $10.09, or 19.2%, to $62.59.
Yum Brands, which owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, rose 1.8% after saying it plans to spin off its China business, which has stumbled recently. The stock added $1.32 to $73.03.
Benchmark U.S. crude fell 34 cents to $45.55 a barrel in New York. U.S. crude has fallen six of the last seven trading days. Brent crude, used to price international oils, rose 10 cents to $48.71 a barrel in London.
U.S. government bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.07% from 2.02% the day before. The euro rose to $1.1347 and the dollar rose to 119.85 yen.