Barclays trading desk on Wall Street. (Photo: REUTERS)
Wall Street came off its bullish high Wednesday as U.S. equity markets fell when traders digested disappointing economic data and mixed corporate earnings reports.
As of 1:01 P.M ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 4.7 points, or 0.02 percent to 16510, while the S&P 500 fell 1.4 points, or 0.08 percent to 1878. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite was down 22.48 points to 4139.
The S&P 500 appears likely to miss making history, at least today, after adding a sixth-straight day to its winning streak on Tuesday. The broad-market index was just 0.6 percent shy from its all-time high.
In corporate earnings new, Boeing revealed adjusted first-quarter profits of $1.76 a share, easily beating Wall Street’s expectations of $1.56 a share. Sales of $20.5 billion also topped views of $20.2 billion. Shares of the aerospace giant increased by more than 2.3 percent in the pre-market.
Procter & Gamble, the blue-chip consumer products giant, revealed core fiscal third-quarter profits of $1.04 a share, topping estimates by three cents. However, sales of $20.56 billion were just shy of Wall Street’s expectations of $20.68 billion. Shares of the blue-chip consumer products giant were flat in pre-market trading.
AT&T reported after the bell Tuesday that its first-quarter earnings came in at 71 cents an adjusted share on revenue of $32.5 billion. Wall Street was expecting EPS of 70 cents on sales of $32.5 billion. The stock is up fractionally in after-hours trading.
Gilead, the biotech giant, which actually took a hit as momentum stocks dropped, did reprt much stronger-than-expected results.
Apple, the world’s biggest company by market capitalization, is set to post its results after the closing bell. Facebook is also set to report its results.
In commodities, U.S. crude oil futures fell $2.24, or 2.2 percent to $102.13 a barrel, while Wholesale New York Harbor gasoline rose 0.09 percent to $3.098 a gallon. Gold, again, advanced $6.60, or 0.52 percent to $1,288 a troy ounce. It has been the second straight day of increases on the troy ounce.
Meanwhile, in economic news, following a report by the National Association of Realtors yesterday, which found existing home sales in the U.S. fell to their lowest level in more than 1-1/2 years in March, NAR analysts told investors that better data was ahead. However, this latest housing report is a blow to the housing market recovery, anyway you slice it.
The Commerce Department said on Wednesday sales dropped 14.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 384,000 units, the second consecutive month of declines.
