Investing.com - Stocks ended Tuesday mixed, with declines in Google parent Alphabet and Apple holding down tech stocks overall, while lower interest rates enticed investors to look at utilities, consumer staples and related stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.15% on the day. The S&P 500 rose 0.1%. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.66%.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was off 7.5%, its biggest one-day loss since 2008, after revenue in its first-quarter report was $1 billion less than expected.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was off 1.9% ahead of a quarterly report expected to show a rare decline in earnings and revenue. The report was better than expected, however, and shares rose 5.5% after hours and could see its market cap top $1 trillion for the first time since November.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), up 0.65%, finished the day with a market cap of $1 trillion for the first time after topping the level twice last week. Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)'s market cap briefly topped $1 trillion on Sept. 4.
Some traders spent Tuesday waiting for the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates, due Wednesday afternoon, along with a press conference from Chairman Jerome Powell. The Fed is expected to leave rates unchanged.
The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 2.509% from 2.536% on Monday.
The Nasdaq and S&P 500 had both hit new highs as late as Monday as the market continued its strong rebound from the sharp slump in the fourth quarter of 2018.
The Dow ended April with a 2.56% gain and is up 14% for the year. The S&P 500's gain for the month was 3.93% and has risen 17.52% this year. The Nasdaq rose 4.9% for April and is up 22.2% in 2019. The four-month gains are the biggest since at least the turn of the century. But the significance of the gains have to be tempered somewhat because of the severity of the late 2018 downturn.
Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) was down 2.13% even as Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa) agreed to invest $10 billion into the oil company's bid for Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:APC). Occidental has been competing against Chevron (NYSE:CVX) for the oil-and-gas exploration company. Berkshire Hathaway was up 6.9%. Anadarko was off 0.08%. Chevron rose 1.9%.
Crude oil WTI futures were up 0.7% to $63.91 a barrel. Brent oil futures rose 1.1%. WTI is up 40.7% on the year; Brent has risen 35.3%.
The American Automobile Association's Daily Fuel Gauge report showed national retail price of gasoline falling slightly to $2.882 a gallon, the first decline in 76 days. Still, AAA's price rose 7.1% in April and is up 18.8% for the year.
General Electric (NYSE:GE) climbed 4.5% after first-quarter earnings and revenue beat estimates from analysts polled by Investing.com.
Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX), GE and Mohawk Industries (NYSE:MHK) were among the top S&P 500 performers.
Alphabet Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Alphabet Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG), plus Baker Hughes (NYSE:BHGE) and MGM Resorts (NYSE:MGM) were among the weakest S&P 500 performers on Tuesday.