Wall Street shares gave up early gains to close lower on Monday as the earnings season got underway.
The S&P500 ended down 0.3% at 2,041, while the S&P Midcap 400 was down 0.2% at 1,424 and the S&P Smallcap 600 was 0.2% lower at 671.
Alcoa (NYSE:AA) was the first to report, with its first-quarter results that showed profits topped analysts' expectations after the closing bell on Monday.
The company reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.07 and revenues of $4.95 billion. These too were among expectations.
But its revenues rose 6%, and this offset a 21% decline that came because of low aluminium prices - yet revenues still missed expectations. It was the same story as three months ago for full-year results. Aluminium prices dogged earnings.
After hours, Alcoa shares dropped by 3.5% to $9.39.
Even buoyant oil prices could not help support the bourse. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up 1.6% at $40.37.
Midsession
US stocks gained at midsession on Monday after speculation that China may institute more stimulus and oil prices firmed.
While investors expected the start of the unofficial earnings season with the after-hours release of Alcoa Inc (LON:AA) earnings, markets were also braced for heavy hits for some sectors of the bourse.
While all ten sectors of the broad-based S&P 500 index were higher and helped the ticker to a reading of 2,054, up 0.4%, forecasts for earnings among the S&P Financials were for a drop of 8.5% and among the top six US banks earnings were estimated by Thomson to be down 20%. Much of this, therefore is likely to be priced in.
The S&P Midcap 400 was up 0.5% at 1,433, while the S&P Smallcap 600 was up 0.5% at 675 and lef by Rex Energy Corp (NASDAQ:REXX). Rex was also the third-biggest riser on the wider small-cap Russell 2000, which gained 0.2% to 1,099.
Rex gained 16% to $0.88 after INEOS Europe AG and Rex Energy announced a new natural gas liquids sale and purchase agreement covering ethane, propane and butane.
The US oilk benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up 1.4% at $40.26, which helped energy stocks generally.
Open
Wall Street’s major benchmarks began Monday’s session in plus territory, and investors are bracing themselves for the start of earnings season.
The Dow Jones rose some 147 points, 0.84%, to trade at 17,724.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.7% and 0.95% respectively.
Yahoo, Tesla Motors, and Facebook in focus during Monday's pre-market
Investors are bracing themselves for the deluge on Monday, as Alcoa Inc (LON:AA) hails the unofficial start to Wall Street’s earnings season.
The aluminium producer - and industrial sector bellwether - releases its results later today, after the market close.
Earlier, however, attentions are on Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ:YHOO), Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB).
Yahoo shares are seen around 1% higher ahead of the opening bell following reports that London’s Daily Mail is involved in private equity backed moved for the Nasdaq group, with the newspaper and tabloid website targeting Yahoo’s online media operations.
Tesla is, meanwhile, hosting a conference call at midday in which it is expected to give a further update. It comes after the recent launch and encouraging early take up of the group’s Model 3 electric saloon.
Facebook this week hosts its annual developer conference. The ‘F8’ event is notably expected to deliver insights regards the social networks plans for live video and artificial intelligence ‘chatbots’.
Notable movers in pre-market include memory and digital storage maker Seagate Technology Plc (NASDAQ:STX), Devon Energy Corp (NYSE:DVN) and Freeport-McMoRan Inc (NYSE:FCX).
Wall Street’s benchmarks, overall, as seen positively in pre-market.
Dow Jones futures are up some 57 points to 17,542, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were seen up 7.25 and 18.75 points respectively at 2,047.6 and 4,474.