U.S. Stocks Waver at Start of Busy Week -- Update
July 22 2019 - 12:29PM
Dow Jones News
By Avantika Chilkoti and Jessica Menton
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell Monday, as investors
prepared for a week filled with fresh economic data and more
corporate earnings reports.
The blue-chip index lost 45 points, or 0.2%, to 27108. The
S&P 500 ticked up 0.1% as technology stocks advanced 1%,
offsetting losses elsewhere. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.5%.
Investors braced for fresh economic data this week as
expectations for interest-rate cuts from major central banks grow.
Reports on new-home sales and durable-goods orders are on tap
Wednesday and Thursday. Meanwhile, the U.S. Commerce Department
will report second-quarter growth figures on Friday.
As central banks across the globe are expected to undertake
fresh stimulus measures in the coming months, investors are looking
ahead to policy meetings from the Federal Reserve next week and the
European Central Bank on Thursday.
"In the next six months we are looking for evidence that either
'Goldilocks' continues or we get greater evidence that the global
economy is slowing down," said Paul Brain, head of fixed income at
Newton Investment Management, the BNY Mellon subsidiary, referring
to the period when the global economy has been neither too hot nor
too cold.
Earnings season is in full swing, with Google parent Alphabet,
e-commerce giant Amazon and social-networking company Facebook
among notable companies reporting quarterly results later in the
week. Second-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are
expected to fall 2.1% from a year earlier, according to
FactSet.
"We need to see a pretty big improvement in corporate earnings
to justify any further price appreciation from where we are right
now," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at
financial-research company CFRA. "Expectations for earnings growth
is coming in softer than previously expected for next year and
heading into 2020."
In Monday's action, shares of Dow component Boeing fell 1.2%
after Fitch Ratings issued a negative outlook for the company,
citing the impact of the aerospace giant's grounded 737 Max
jetliners.
Shares of Equifax edged up 0.5% after the credit-reporting
company said it would pay $700 million to settle a nationwide
class-action lawsuit related to a breach in 2017 that exposed the
data of close to 150 million Americans.
Meanwhile, Halliburton topped analysts' profit estimates in the
second quarter, but the oil-field-services company said its
business in North America slowed down. Halliburton shares jumped
5.4%.
In commodities, Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose 0.9% to
$63.05 a barrel as tensions mounted in the Persian Gulf. Iran
seized a British-flagged tanker in the Persian Gulf on Friday.
Elsewhere, the Stoxx 600 in Europe slipped 0.1%. In Asia,
China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index and Hong Kong's Hang
Seng fell 1.3% and 1.4%, respectively.
--Joanne Chiu contributed to this article.
Write to Avantika Chilkoti at Avantika.Chilkoti@wsj.com and
Jessica Menton at Jessica.Menton@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 22, 2019 12:14 ET (16:14 GMT)
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