Wall Street fluctuated after mixed earnings and halted trading

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street was mixed on Tuesday as a raft of mixed gains took some of the wind out of the recent recovery.

The session got off to a rocky start, as a group of stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange stopped at the opening bell due to an apparent technical glitch, causing initial price confusion and prompting an investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

More than 80 stocks were affected by the malfunction, which caused wide opening price swings in stocks, including Walmart. (WMT.N) And Nike (NKE.N).

“It looks like the NYSE has really gotten in early,” said Joseph Sroka, chief investment officer at NovaPoint in Atlanta. “Now they are trying to set trade opening prices.”

“Whoever participates in the trading settlements will have a long day today.”

All three pointers popped up near the starting line, with little momentum apparent either way.

Fourth-quarter earnings season is in full swing, with 72 companies in the S&P 500 reporting it. Of those, 65% beat consensus, just below the long-term average of 66%, according to Refinitiv.

In aggregate, analysts now expect the S&P 500’s earnings to fall 2.9% sequentially, down from 1.6% year-over-year on Jan. 1, according to Refinitiv.

“Earnings are not making the market bullish or bearish yet, but there is concern among investors to go long when the Fed finishes raising interest rates,” Sroka added. “We’re hitting a slope in the earnings cycle, and by next week we’ll have a lot more information about the direction of the market.”

Economic data showed a smaller-than-expected contraction in the manufacturing and services sector in the first weeks of the year, suggesting that the Federal Reserve’s restrictive interest rates are dampening demand.

Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 60.69 points, or 0.18%, to 33,690.25, the Standard & Poor’s 500 (.SPX) It lost 5.36 points, or 0.13%, to 4,014.45 points, the Nasdaq Composite. (nineteenth) It fell 28.39 points, or 0.25%, to 11,336.03 points.

Among the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, industrials were declining the most.

Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE.N)Inc., owner of the New York Stock Exchange, fell 2.5% as SEC investigators searched for the cause of Tuesday’s opening bell confusion.

Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) Shares fell 1.8% after the Department of Justice sued Google for abusing its dominance in digital advertising.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) Earnings guidance came in above analyst expectations. However, its stock eased 0.3%.

Industrial conglomerate 3M Corporation (MMM.N) and General Electric (GE.N) Both provided disappointing guidance due to inflationary headwinds.

3M shares fell 5.1% while General Electric shares were slightly lower.

Aerospace / Defense Companies Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) and Raytheon Technologies Corp (RTX.N) It was a study by contrast, with the former releasing disappointing earnings forecasts while the latter beating estimates of strong travel demand.

Lockheed Martin and Raytheon rose 1.5% and 2.5%, respectively.

Railroad operator Union Pacific missed profit estimates as labor shortages and severe weather delayed shipments. Its shares fell 2.7 percent.

Microsoft Corporation (MSFT.O) He is due to report after the bell.

Advance issues outnumbered declining issues on the NYSE by a ratio of 1.16 to 1; On the Nasdaq, the ratio was 1.06 to 1 in favor of declining stocks.

The S&P 500 posted 27 new 52-week highs and 10 new lows; The Nasdaq index posted 69 new highs and 21 new lows.

Reporting by Stephen Kolb. Additional reporting by Shriyashi Sanyal and Yohan M Cherian in Bengaluru. Editing by Aurora Ellis

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