By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- U.S. stock markets pared early gains Tuesday as a barrage of downbeat earnings reports and gloomy economic data curbed the enthusiasm of those betting on a sharp rebound for the U.S. economy next month.
By 10:30 AM ET (1430 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 130 points, or 1.5% at 24,264, having earlier hit a seven-week high of 24,512 points. The S&P 500 was up 0.5% and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.2%, as the froth came out of stocks such as Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA).
The market had earlier appeared to give U.S. Inc a pass on a quarter where results largely reflected business before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, and where visibility regarding the rest of the year has dwindled to near zero.
Stocks weakened after the sharpest drop in the Conference Board's consumer confidence index in years, down to its lowest level since 2014.
On a heavy morning for corporate earnings, 3M Company (NYSE:MMM) stock rose 4.2% after the company said a surge in demand for its health-care products (including face-masks) offset a decline in sales at its other divisions, which were all negatively affected by the pandemic. The company said it would cut its capital spending by over 20% this year to preserve cash.
At the other end of the scale, United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS) stock fell 4.3% after the company was unable to translate a surge in demand for delivery services into higher margins due to an even sharper rise in costs.
Likewise, Merck (NYSE:MRK) stock fell 3.5% after the pharma giant warned that the pandemic could take over $2 billion off full-year sales as health care systems around the world de-prioritize some of the ailments that its best-selling drugs treat - notably its blockbuster Keytruda. The company also suspended its buyback program.
Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) stock rose 1.2% after a quarterly update that added little to existing knowledge, while PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) stock rose 1.3% after its first quarter was rescued by locked-down consumers' demand for snacks - an element that was missing from rival Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO)'s disappointing update last week.
Elsewhere, Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) stock rose 2.2% to its highest in seven weeks after the volatility in the U.S. crude futures strip receded. Sentiment towards oil major was helped by the sight of BP (NYSE:BP) maintaining its quarterly dividend, even at the expense of a sharp rise in debt.