U.S. stocks were falling on Tuesday as third-quarter earnings season kicks into top gear amid retail sales numbers for September that came in stronger than expected.
At 11:05 ET (15:05 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 38 points, or 0.1% while the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and the NASDAQ Composite was down 0.5%.
The main indices on Wall Street posted strong gains on Monday, with the 30-stock Dow gaining over 300 points, or 0.9%, while the benchmark S&P rose 1.1% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 1.2%.
More bank earnings scheduled
Sentiment has received a boost from better than expected quarterly earnings to date, including numbers from Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) on Monday and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) on Friday.
Third-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies have likely increased 2.2%, up from an estimated rise of 1.3% a week earlier, according to LSEG data.
There are more results from the financial sector due early Tuesday. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) beat expectations on interest income, and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) beat expectations on bond trading. Shares rose 1.5% and fell 1.3%, respectively. Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) beat expectations are raised its outlook. Shares dipped 1.2%.
Elsewhere, Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) LinkedIn unit said it would lay off over 600 employees, more than 3% of the 20,000-strong staff, in the second round of job cuts this year for the social media network for professionals amid slowing revenue growth.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) has been asked to recall almost 55,000 Model X vehicles manufactured between 2021-2023 as the vehicle controller is likely to fail to detect low brake fluid and not display a warning light.
Retail sales rise more than expected
In economic data, retail sales for September came in stronger than expected at 0.7% versus the outlook for 0.3%.
A handful of Federal Reserve officials are also set to speak during the day, including New York’s John Williams, Richmond’s Thomas Barkin, Minneapolis’ Neel Kashkari and Board Governor Michelle Bowman.
Crude rebounds after Venezuela-inspired loss
Oil prices edged higher, bouncing after the previous session’s slide on hopes the U.S. would ease sanctions on producer Venezuela, potentially easing the tight global supply situation.
The crude market slid around $1 a barrel on Monday after Reuters reported, citing multiple sources, that Venezuela’s government and the opposition plan to resume long-suspended talks on Tuesday.
This could eventually see Washington relax its sanctions on oil exports from this Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries member, which had been put in place following highly disputed elections in 2018.
Elsewhere, U.S. President Joe Biden will make a visit to Israel on Wednesday as the country prepares a large-scale ground invasion of Gaza as part of an offensive against Hamas militants.
(Oliver Gray contributed to this item.)
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