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Stocks opened little changed on Wednesday after two of the major stock indexes posted record closes in the previous session. Wall Street also digested another batch of corporate earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average sagged 28.36 points to 26,628.03
The S&P 500 slumped 0.23 points to 2,933.45
The NASDAQ Composite inched ahead 0.88 points to 8,121.71, above Tuesday’s record close.
The S&P 500 and NASDAQ notched record closing highs on Tuesday, fueled by strong corporate earnings results from companies like United Technologies, Coca-Cola and Twitter.
The move came less than six months after a massive drop in December, which led to Wall Street’s worst year since the financial crisis. But a pivot by the Federal Reserve in monetary policy away from higher rates and the cooling of trade tensions between China and the U.S. helped stocks rally from those lows.
Technology led the comeback, rising more than 36% since Christmas Eve. Xerox is the best-performing stock in the sector since then, rising about 80%.
Facebook and Microsoft are among the companies set to report later on Wednesday, while Amazon is scheduled to release its results on Thursday.
Nearly 130 S&P 500 companies have reported calendar first-quarter earnings so far. Of those companies, 78% have reported better-than-forecast profits
Earlier on Wednesday, Caterpillar reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the previous quarter. However, the stock fell more than 3%. Boeing shares, meanwhile, rose 1% despite the company pulling its 2019 guidance and halting its buyback program.
Domino’s Pizza, meanwhile rose on stronger-than-forecast quarterly results. Anthem and Biogen’s earnings also beat estimates.
Prices for the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury sprang upward, lowering yields to 2.52% from Tuesday’s 2.57%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices eased off seven cents to $66.23 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices gained $1.50 to $1,274.70 U.S. an ounce.
