Off the wire
• Venezuelan opposition confirms it to begin dialogue with government  • Portugal's president visits Fidel Castro, slams U.S.-led trade embargo  • N Europe's largest musical festival reveals first 14 names for 2017 edition  • Saudi Arabia intercepts missile targeting Mecca from Yemen  • Colombia gov't delays ELN peace talks until prisoner freed  • 2nd LD Writethru: Russia terms new report on use of chemical weapons in Syria as "unconvincing"  • News Analysis: Stripping IS of Syria's al-Raqqa harder than retaking Iraq's Mosul  • 1st LD: Russia terms new report on use of chemical weapons in Syria as "unconvincing"  • Urgent: Russia terms new report on use of chemical weapons in Syria as "unconvincing"  • Turkey gives U.S. more files on extradition request of Gulen  
You are here: 　 Home

U.S. stocks tick down amid earnings, downbeat data

Xinhua, October 28, 2016 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks reversed early gains to end lower Thursday as investors pondered over a batch of quarterly earnings results amid negative economic data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 29.65 points, or 0.16 percent, to 18,169.68. The S&P 500 lost 6.39 points, or 0.30 percent, to 2,133.04. The Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 34.29 points, or 0.65 percent, to 5,215.97.

United Parcel Service (UPS) Inc. said on Thursday that it earned 1.27 billion U.S. dollars in third quarter, up 1 percent from a year earlier, while its revenue rose 4.9 percent to 14.93 billion U.S. dollars, beating Wall Street expectations.

Shares of the U.S. package-delivery giant, however, fell 0.49 percent to 108.08 dollars apiece after the release.

Shares of Ford Motor Co. decreased 1.18 percent to 11.74 dollars apiece after the auto maker' s third-quarter profit dropped 56 percent.

Corporate earnings have done well relative to market consensus. According to a report from the Earnings Scout, 39 percent of S&P 500 components had posted results as of Wednesday morning, with 76 percent beating earnings estimates and 62 percent topping sales expectations.

On the economic front, in the week ending October 22, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 258,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday. The latest reading was higher than market consensus of 255,000.

The Commerce Department said on Thursday that new orders for U.S. manufactured capital goods unexpectedly fell 1.2 percent in September after three straight months of strong gains.

"Shipments of nondefense capital goods ex-aircraft shipments, which feed directly into GDP calculations, fell at a 4.4% annualized rate in Q3, suggesting soft business investment is likely to weigh on growth in Q3, as it did in the first half," said Chris Low and Sophia Kearney-Lederman, economists at FTN Financial, in a joint note. Enditem