Wall Street falls ahead of big tech earnings; Nasdaq sheds 180 pts

Reuters

Published Jul 27, 2021 06:37AM ET

Updated Jul 27, 2021 08:22AM ET

By Ambar Warrick

(Reuters) -U.S. stock indexes fell ahead of earnings reports from the most valuable companies on Wall Street and in the run-up to the two-day Federal Reserve meeting.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 180 points, or 1.2% on Tuesday, to close at 14,660. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 85 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 fell 0.5%.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), are set to report earnings after the market closes, while Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) will report results on Thursday.

"The markets may be in a sideways, quiet mode until we get some of those results... generally it's more reactive than it is proactive," said Randy Frederick, managing director of Trading and Derivatives at Schwab Center for Financial Research.

"The expectations for earnings for growth were high. This is being compared to 2020, when the economy was shut down, and as a result, there's a very low bar (for comparison)."

Investors remained on edge, awaiting more signals from the central bank on when it intends to begin reining in its massive stimulus program. The two-day Fed meeting will begin later in the day.

Frederick said the Fed was likely to stand pat on policy this week, but could hint at its plans for tightening during the Jackson Hole Symposium in August.

Wall Street indexes had inched up to record closing highs on Monday, carrying over momentum from a strong batch of earnings last week.

Of the S&P 500 constituents, 124 companies have reported earnings so far and 88.7% of them have beaten estimates, according to Refinitiv data.

Electric-car maker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc rose 1.4% in premarket trade after it posted a better-than-expected second-quarter profit on higher sales of its less-expensive vehicles.