Investing.com – Wall Street traded slightly lower on Tuesday amid a slew of earnings report that showed mixed results for Dow components, while consumer confidence missed estimates but housing prices and manufacturing activity posted better reads than expected.
At 11:33AM ET (15:33GMT), the Dow Jones fell 33 points, or 0.18%, the S&P 500 lost 6 points, or 0.27% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite traded down 18 points, or 0.34%.
In big moves on blue-chip earnings, Procter & Gamble (P&G) (NYSE:PG) led the Dow higher, surging more than 4% after the maker of Tide detergent and Pampers diapers reported better-than-expected profit thanks to cost cutting.
Merck (NYSE:MRK) and United Technologies (NYSE:UTX) followed P&G amid advancers on the blue-chip index with gains of more than 1% after quarterly numbers beat consensus.
Leading the decliners on the Dow, 3M (NYSE:MMM) fell by more than 3% after the maker of Post-its trimmed its revenue forecast.
After Tuesday’s close, the focus will be Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). The largest U.S. firm by market capitalization will offer the first peek into sales of the new iPhone 7. Analysts expect the iPhone maker to post earnings of $1.65 a share on revenue of $46.89 billion for the quarter.
On the economic front, consumer confidence fell more than expected in October, missing expectations for a lower drop.
“Consumers’ assessment of current business and employment conditions softened, while optimism regarding the short-term outlook retreated somewhat,” Lynn Franco, Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board, said.
“However, consumers’ expectations regarding their income prospects in the coming months were relatively unchanged,” Franco added.
In the real estate market, S&P Case-Shiller and the Federal Housing Finance Agency data both showed housing prices rising more than expected in August.
Additionally, the Richmond Fed survey showed that manufacturing activity in the region improved slightly more than expected.
Still ahead, Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart is scheduled to speak at 1:20PM ET (17:20GMT) on lending and investing in community development. Fed speakers will then be in a quiet period ahead of the central bank's meeting next week.
Markets are currently pricing in just a 7.2% chance of a rate hike at that meeting though odds for a move in December stood at 73.6%, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Meanwhile, oil prices were under pressure in North American trade on Tuesday, reversing earlier gains as fading expectations of a coordinated production cut among major global oil producers and a stronger U.S. dollar weighed.
A special committee of major oil producers including non-OPEC member Russia was scheduled to meet in Vienna on Friday and Saturday in order to hammer out the details of the proposal to be discussed at OPEC’s official meeting on November 30.
While watching developments surrounding a potential agreement, attention turned Tuesday to data on U.S. crude inventories.
Industry group the American Petroleum Institute is due to release its weekly report at 4:30PM ET (20:30GMT) later on Tuesday.
Official data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Wednesday, amid forecasts for an oil-stock increase of 0.8 million barrels.
U.S. crude futures lost 0.79% to $50.12 by 11:36AM ET (15:36GMT), while Brent oil traded down 0.99% to $50.95.