Stocks Down: Pfizer, Under Armour Sink
NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks are slipping Tuesday as first-quarter results from companies including drugmaker Pfizer and athletic apparel maker Under Armour disappointed Wall Street. Energy companies are declining as oil prices head lower. Health care companies are mostly higher as drugmaker AbbVie climbs after it announced a big stock buyback. Several overseas markets are closed for public holidays.
KEEPING SCORE: The S&P 500 index lost 7 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,640 as of 10 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average sank 159 points, or 0.7 percent, to 24,033. The Nasdaq composite declined 11 points, or 0.2 percent, to 7,055. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks slid 6 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,535.
EARNINGS: Pfizer slumped as its first-quarter sales fell short of estimates. The maker of pain medicine Lyrica and the blockbuster Prevnar 13 vaccine against pneumococcal infections said sales of older medicines slipped and its stock lost 2.3 percent. Merck fell 1.1 percent to $58.23 following its report. AbbVie gained 6.1 percent to $102.49 after it said it will buy back $7.5 billion of its own stock.
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Under Armour had a solid first quarter, but analysts were concerned about its profit margins and its North American business, where sales were unchanged from last year. A number of sporting goods companies have seen their stocks fall as investors worried about slowing sales of sneakers and other products. Under Armour fell 5.1 percent to $14.57. Hanesbrands did better than expected to start the year but still lost 2.6 percent to $17.99.
TECHNOLOGY: Electronic storage company Seagate Technology plunged 8.9 percent to $52.73 after its fiscal third-quarter report. The stock has climbed 26 percent this year. Apple rose 0.8 percent to $166.51 as investors waited for its report, which will come after the close of trading.
COMMODITIES: Oil prices gave up some of their recent gains. Benchmark U.S. crude fell 1.3 percent to $6.770 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the international standard, declined 1.2 percent to $73.82 a barrel in London. Energy companies fell.
Gold fell 0.9 percent to $1,370.50 an ounce and silver lost 0.9 percent to $16.25 an ounce.
BONDS: Bond prices edged lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.97 percent from 2.96 percent. The 10-year yield hit a four-year high last week.
CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 109.68 yen from 109.29 yen. The euro fell to $1.2015 from 1.2082.
OVERSEAS: Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.2 percent and the Japanese Nikkei 225 rose 0.2 percent. Markets in France and Germany, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul and most cities in Southeast Asia were closed for public holidays.
(BE)