UKX FTSE 100 Index

By Riva Gold and Kevin Kingsbury 
   -- Dollar falls to postelection low on health-care bill doubts 
 
   -- Stocks in Europe and Asia under pressure 
 
   -- Netflix, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America earnings in focus 

Global stocks were under pressure Tuesday as bourses in Europe and Asia were held back by a fall in the dollar and mixed corporate results.

Senate Republicans gave up their efforts to dismantle and replace much of the Affordable Care Act late Monday, sending the greenback to fresh postelection lows.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 62 points, or 0.3%, to 21567 shortly after the opening bell. The S&P 500 fell 0.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.3%.

The Stoxx Europe 600 dropped 1.2% and Germany's export-sensitive DAX index fell 1.6%, echoing losses in Japan and Australia.

Bank shares dragged on Wall Street bourses, with shares of Bank of America down 0.9% and Goldman Sachs Group off 0.9%, even as both beat expectations for second-quarter results. Banks had also fallen across the board Friday despite posting better-than-expected earnings as analysts pointed to concerns about future loan growth and the outlook for the second half of the year.

Shares of Harley-Davidson dropped 10% after it lowered its shipment and margin guidance for the year, but shares of Netflix gained 7.9% after the company blew through its subscriber-growth estimate in the second quarter, kicking off reports from technology sector.

Losses in the U.S. followed declines in export-heavy indexes overseas as the dollar traded around a 10-month low.

Investors said the recent struggle to pass a health-care bill added to doubts about the likely implementation of the other policies backed by the Trump administration, weighing on the dollar and local stock markets.

If Republicans can't pass a replacement health-care bill, "there is little else [they] could do" with passing other legislation, said Toshihiko Sakai, senior manager of forex and financial-products trading at Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking.

The Wall Street Journal Dollar Index was recently down 0.5% as the euro topped $1.15 for the first time since May 2016 and was last up 0.6% at $1.1553.

Fiscal policy is now going to be in the spotlight, said Luke Tilley, chief economist at Wilmington Trust. "Once the health care debate and legislation is done, I expect a sudden shift in focus to prospective tax reform, which will have a larger impact on sector performance and dispersion," said Mr. Tilley.

Meanwhile in Europe, shares in Swedish telecoms-equipment maker Ericsson fell 13% after the company warned that earnings could weaken further after swinging to a net loss in the second quarter.

London's FTSE 100 was an exception to declines in the region as the British pound fell 0.4% to $1.3005 after data showed an unexpected fall in U.K. consumer inflation in June.

Earlier, consumer cyclicals, or companies whose output of consumer goods tend to be tied to economic growth, led losses in Asia-Pacific trading Tuesday, as weakness in the dollar weighed hurt stocks in Australia and Japan.

The Australian dollar jumped 1.7% to its highest level against the greenback in two years, getting an additional boost from the release of minutes from this month's central-bank meeting. During the gathering, Australian officials discussed the effects of a neutral interest-rate policy. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.2%.

Weakness in the dollar filtered through Japanese stocks after Monday's holiday. The Nikkei was down 0.6% Tuesday, while the dollar was last down 0.5% against the yen at Yen112.0700.

Chinese stocks recovered slightly after Monday's slump. The Shenzhen Composite was up 0.5%, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.4%.

Elsewhere in markets, gold edged up 0.3% to $1,237 an ounce. Yields on 10-year Treasurys fell to 2.281% from 2.309% on Monday. around their lowest this month. Yields move inversely to prices.

--

Kenan Machado

, Kosaku Narioka and Robb M. Stewart contributed to this article.

Write to Riva Gold at riva.gold@wsj.com and Kevin Kingsbury at kevin.kingsbury@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 18, 2017 09:52 ET (13:52 GMT)

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