By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks relinquished much of their
gains on Tuesday, with benchmark indexes withdrawing from intraday
records, as a regional gauge of manufacturing prompted concern.
Wall Street had began modestly higher as companies from DuPont
Co. (DD) to Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) beat earnings
expectations.
Stocks relinquished much of their gains as the Federal Reserve
Bank of Richmond said manufacturing activity in the central
Atlantic region declined in July, with a seasonally adjusted
composite index of manufacturing activity down 18 points in July to
a reading of -11. The Richmond Fed also said that activity in the
service sector softened in July.
"While the Richmond manufacturing survey is never market moving
itself, its weakness following the better New York and Philly
reports points to a still mixed bag in manufacturing," emailed
Peter Boockvar, chief market strategist at the Lindsey Group
LLC.
After a 58-point climb to an intraday record of 15,604.22, the
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) was lately up 14.69 points, or
0.1%, at 15,560.24, with United Technologies Corp. (UTX) pacing
blue-chip gains after reporting quarterly earnings above Wall
Street estimates.
Dow component DuPont (DD) shares also rose after the chemical
producer reported a drop in quarterly earnings and said it was
considering a spinoff or potential sale of its
performance-chemicals business.
Halting gains after a four-session winning streak, the S&P
500 index (SPX) fell 2.80 points, or 0.2%, to 1,692.73, with health
care and technology leading sector losses.
The S&P 500 rose to its 23rd record close this year on
Monday.
United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) shares fell after the global
shipper reported a smaller quarterly profit, while Lockheed Martin
Corp. (LMT) gained after an earnings beat. Freeport-McMoRan Copper
& Gold Inc. (FCX) climbed after the biggest publicly traded
copper producer reported second-quarter earnings that topped
estimates.
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) dropped a day after the online-entertainment
service reported subscriber growth below some estimates in the
second quarter, although earnings surged compared with the same
period a year ago.
CapitalSource Inc. (CSE) jumped after PacWest Bancorp (PACW)
said it would acquire the commercial lender for about $2.29 billion
in cash and stock. Sourcefire Inc. (FIRE) shares rallied after
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) agreed to buy the cybersecurity company
in a deal worth about $2.7 billion.
Tech giant Apple (AAPL) will likely garner much of the attention
Tuesday after weak results from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Google
Inc. (GOOG) last week. Apple will release quarterly earnings after
the market close on Tuesday.
The Nasdaq Composite (RIXF) lost 15.14 points, or 0.4%, to
3,585.26.
For every four shares sliding, five gained on the New York Stock
Exchange, where 179 million shares traded as of 11 a.m. Eastern.
Composite volume neared 986 million.
In other financial markets, gold prices nudged lower after an
impressive run on Monday, when the August contract (GCQ3) posted
the heftiest one-day rally in more than a year.
Short-covering likely factored into gold's bounce after prices
fell more than 30% from late 2012, with Federal Reserve Chairman
Ben Bernanke's pushback against monetary tightening a factor
driving the action, wrote Marc Chandler, global head of currency
strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., in emailed
commentary.
But the impact could be short-lived. "Despite the market's
recent misinterpretation of the Fed's tone regarding QE
[quantitative easing] exit, genuine inflation concerns are nowhere
on the horizon, neither is systemic risk -- two key variables that
typically support sustained gold rallies. On the demand side, India
has just placed yet more restrictions on gold imports," he
wrote.
Tuesday's data calendar also had the Federal Housing Finance
Agency's home-price index for May rising 0.7%.
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