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1st LD Writethru: U.S. stocks decline on profit taking

Xinhua, July 22, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks ended lower amid lackluster quarterly results Tuesday, as investors were looking for excuses to lock in gains after the Nasdaq Composite Index's three-session record run.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 181.12 points, or 1 percent, to 17,919.29. The S&P 500 lost 9.07 points, or 0.43 percent, to 2,119.21. The Nasdaq was down 10.74 points, or 0.21 percent, to 5,208.12.

In the absence of major U.S. economic data, Wall Street mainly focused on the second-quarter earnings season which gets into full swing with Apple scheduled for release after the closing bell.

The blue-chip Dow was hit by a batch of generally negative earnings reports from its components such as IBM, Verizon and United Technologies Corporation.

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) shares slumped 5.86 percent to 163.07 dollars apiece Tuesday as its revenues missed market estimates.

IBM announced the second-quarter 2015 diluted earnings from continuing operations of 3.58 U.S. dollars per share, down 15 percent year on year.

United Technologies Corporation also suffered big losses after it reported weaker-than-expected revenues and cut full-year forecast.

The industrial conglomerate posted the second quarter earnings per share of 1.73 dollars and net income attributable to common shareowners of 1.5 billion dollars, down 6 percent and 8 percent versus the prior year, respectively. Its shares plummeted 7.03 percent to 102.71 dollars apiece Tuesday.

Shares of Verizon dipped 2.35 percent to 46.97 dollars apiece after the company delivered quarterly earnings above estimates and revenues shy of forecast.

The biggest U.S. wireless service provider reported 1.04 dollars in earnings per share for the second-quarter 2015, compared with 1.01 dollars per share in the second-quarter 2014.

After the closing bell, Apple announced slightly better-than- expected financial results for the third quarter of its fiscal year 2015. The tech giant posted quarterly revenue of 49.6 billion dollars and quarterly net profit of 10.7 billion dollars, or 1.85 dollars per diluted share. Its shares, however, tumbled in the after-hours trading. Endite