Wall Street Slips Amid Mixed Earnings News

3M Co climbed 3.26 percent as one of the biggest boosts on the Dow after it benefited from lower costs and demand for disposable respirator masks, hand sanitisers and safety glasses amid a surge in coronavirus infections.

Johnson & Johnson also provided a strong lift, up 2.71 percent as the drugmaker said it expected to report eagerly awaited Covid-19 vaccine data early next week.

Of the 84 companies in the S&P 500 that posted earnings through Tuesday morning, 86.9 percent have topped analyst expectations, according to Refinitiv data.

Still, some companies showed the toll the pandemic has had on their businesses. American Express Co fell 4.13 percent and was the biggest drag on the Dow after it posted a 15 percent drop in quarterly profit as pandemic-led lockdowns and business restrictions kept the credit card issuer's members from traveling and dining out.

"It is still somewhat the early days but we are getting into the heart of it here," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York.

"Expectations are for a continuation of the massive positive surprises we saw last quarter. The risk is that if the expectations are already there and there are disappointments, you get stocks like you see in American Express today getting slammed."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.07 percent, to 30,937, the S&P 500 lost 0.15 percent, to 3,850 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.07 percent, to 13,626.

For the Nasdaq, the decline snapped a five-session streak of gains, its longest run of daily gains since early November.

After the closing bell, Microsoft shares rose 5.20 percent as the tech giant beat Wall Street estimates for revenue growth in its Azure cloud computing business as it benefits from a global shift to home learning and working. (Reuters)