LONDON: US stocks finished lower Tuesday following mixed earnings, with the Nasdaq (NasdaqGS: NDAQ – news) especially weak due to steep declines in biotech shares and Tesla Motors (Xetra: A1CX3T – news) .
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 13.43 points (0.08 percent) to 17,217.11.
The broad-based S&P 500 shed 2.89 (0.14 percent) to 2,030.77, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 24.50 (0.50 percent) to 4,880.97.
Nasdaq-listed Tesla slumped 6.6 percent after Consumer Reports said the carmaker’s “Model S” electric car has a poor reliability performance.
Biotech companies also fell, including Celgene (-2.7 percent) and Gilead Sciences (NasdaqGS: GILD – news) (-1.9 percent), part of a sell-off in pharma stocks that also hit Dow members Pfizer (-1.5 percent) and Merck (Jakarta: 28586808.JK – news) (-2.0 percent).
Other large technology stocks also fell, including Amazon (-2.2 percent) and Google (-2.4 percent). But Apple jumped 1.8 percent after chief executive Tim Cook said the technology giant’s new music service already has some 6.5 million subscribers.
Dow member IBM (NYSE: IBM – news) sank 5.8 percent after reporting that revenues fell for the 14th straight quarter and trimming its full-year profit forecast.
Harley-Davidson plummeted 13.9 percent after announcing it would cut an unspecified number of jobs in response to lower sales. Earnings for the third-quarter fell 6.5 percent to $140.3 million.
Dow member United Technologies rose 3.9 percent after reporting that third-quarter earnings translated into $1.61 per share, above the $1.55 projected by analysts.
Among other companies reporting earnings, Verizon (NYSE: VZ – news) rose 1.2 percent and Travelers advanced 2.5 percent while Lockheed Martin (Swiss: LMT.SW – news) fell 0.9 percent.
Yum Brands (Swiss: YUM.SW – news) , the owner of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, advanced 1.8 percent on news it will split off its China business into a separate company.
United Continental (NYSE: UAL – news) fell 1.8 percent after announcing that general counsel Brett Hart will serve as acting chief executive, substituting for newly appointed CEO Oscar Munoz, who was hospitalized Thursday after a heart attack.
