U.S. stocks close lower on earnings, data

NEW YORK, April 30 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks closed lower on Monday as investors digested a slew of corporate earnings reports as well as major economic data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 148.04 points, or 0.61 percent, to 24,163.15. The S&P 500 decreased 21.86 points, or 0.82 percent, to 2,648.05. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 53.53 points, or 0.75 percent, to 7,066.27.

On the earnings front, McDonald's on Monday reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings, as menu price increases fueled higher check averages in its U.S. stores.

The company reported adjusted earnings per share of 1.79 U.S. dollars and revenue of 5.14 billion dollars, both topping Wall Street's expectations.

In corporate news, Disney announced on Monday that the company will be creating new live shows specifically for Twitter. Shares of Disney increased 1.13 percent to close at 100.35 dollars apiece while shares of Twitter jumped 4.52 percent to close at 30.31 dollars apiece.

Meanwhile, Shares of Sprint and T-Mobile took a hit Monday after a blockbuster merger between the two telecom companies was announced over the weekend.

Sprint's stock fell 13.77 percent to close at 5.61 dollars apiece, while T-Mobile's stock plunged 6.22 percent to close at 60.51 dollars apiece.

T-Mobile US and Sprint Corporation announced on Sunday they have entered into a definitive agreement to merge in an all-stock transaction at a fixed exchange ratio of 0.10256 T-Mobile shares for each Sprint share or the equivalent of 9.75 Sprint shares for each T-Mobile US share.

On the economic front, personal income increased 47.8 billion dollars, or 0.3 percent, in March, according to estimates released by the U.S. Commerce Department on Monday.

Disposable personal income increased 39.8 billion dollars and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased 61.7 billion dollars, or 0.4 percent, according to the estimates.

The PCE price index increased less than 0.1 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.2 percent, said the department. Enditem