The Dow Jones Industrial Average was on track for a slightly
lower open Tuesday after weak earnings reports from International
Business Machines Corp. and United Technologies Corp.
E-mini Dow futures slipped 27 points, or 0.2%, to 17976.
S&P 500 futures lost one point to 2121. E-mini Nasdaq-100
futures rose six points, or 0.1%, to 4677. Changes in stock futures
don't always accurately predict moves after the opening bell.
United Technologies said Tuesday that sales fell 5% in the June
quarter and lowered its earnings guidance for the year. Shares
slipped 4.1% premarket.
IBM on Monday said second-quarter revenue fell 13.5%, extending
its sales slump to 13 quarters. IBM's profit declined 16.6% to
$3.45 billion, weighed down by acquisition-related charges. Shares
fell 4.9% in premarket trading, weighing on the Dow
industrials.
The Nasdaq Composite Index ended at its third record in a row on
Monday, rising 0.2% to 5218.86. The Dow added 0.1% to 18100.41 and
the S&P gained 0.1% to 2128.28.
A handful of upbeat earnings from Internet and technology
companies have buoyed the Nasdaq Composite, including results from
Google Inc. and Netflix Inc. last week. The tech-heavy index has
gained 4.7% in July, through Monday's close. Several tech
heavyweights are expected to report after the bell Tuesday,
including Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. GoPro Inc.,
which tends to see big swings in shares after earnings and is a
member of the Nasdaq Composite, also reports Tuesday afternoon.
Stocks on both sides of the Atlantic have rebounded in recent
sessions after Greece secured a fresh bailout from its creditors.
The Greek government met a Monday deadline to pay €4.2 billion
($4.6 billion) to the European Central Bank, and the country's
banks opened its banks for the first time in three weeks.
Recent gains have pushed the broad U.S. stock indexes within
striking distance of all-time highs. The S&P 500 on Monday
ended just 0.1% shy of a record, while the Dow closed 1.2% below
its record.
"The two biggest stories in the past couple of months were
Greece and the wild swings in the Shanghai," said Doug Shapiro,
equity trader at brokerage firm Raymond James. Now, "the Fed is
quiet, Greece is quiet, China is quiet, and it's all happening at
the same time as earnings. There's nothing to watch other than
earnings," he said.
European shares fell slightly in recent trade. The Stoxx Europe
600 slipped 0.3%, halting its nine-day rally. Germany's DAX fell
0.2% and France's CAC-40 lost 0.1%.
Chinese stocks rose for the fourth session in a row on Tuesday,
with the Shanghai Composite Index up 0.6%.
In commodity markets, gold futures were little changed at
$1106.60 an ounce. Crude-oil futures fell less than 0.1% to $50.13
a barrel.
Treasury prices fell, pushing the yield on the 10-year note up
to 2.390% from 2.372% on Monday.
Write to Saumya Vaishampayan at saumya.vaishampayan@wsj.com
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