By Saumya Vaishampayan
U.S. stock futures were little changed Tuesday as investors eyed
first-quarter earnings reports from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and
other companies.
S&P 500 futures lost three points, or 0.1%, to 2084. E-mini
Dow futures slipped 12 points, or 0.1%, to 17898, and e-mini
Nasdaq-100 futures fell one point to 4402.
J.P. Morgan said its first-quarter profit rose 12%, boosted by
strong trading results. The bank reported a profit of $5.91
billion, or $1.45 a share. Revenue rose 4.1% to $24.82 billion.
Shares rose 0.8% premarket as results beat expectations.
Wells Fargo & Co. posted a rare quarterly earnings decline
as the bank continued to face pressure on its lending margins.
First-quarter profit fell 1.5% to $5.8 billion, marking the first
time since mid-2010 that Wells Fargo didn't increase profits.
Shares slipped 1.2% premarket.
Johnson & Johnson said first-quarter profit fell 8.6%, and
it reduced its 2015 per-share earnings outlook amid increased
pressure from a strong U.S. dollar and weaker sales of hepatitis C
drug Olysio. Shares added 0.3% in premarket trading as the
company's results slightly exceeded expectations.
Stocks fell Monday in the second-slowest trading day of the
year. The Dow slipped 0.4% to 17977.04 and the S&P lost 0.5% to
2092.43. The Nasdaq fell 0.15% to 4988.25.
First-quarter earnings for companies in the S&P 500 are
projected to decline from a year earlier, as companies deal with a
strong dollar and low oil prices.
"You really can't ignore the impact of the significantly
stronger dollar on earnings, especially for multinationals," said
Monica DiCenso, U.S. head of equity strategy at J.P. Morgan Private
Bank. "And we haven't seen energy prices rebound. The impact on
[the] energy sector, as well as industrials, is going to be pretty
meaningful," she added. Ms. DiCenso said she recently cut earnings
expectations for the year, now expecting 4% to 5% earnings growth
for the S&P 500.
In economic news, a gauge of U.S. business prices rose in March
for the first time since October. The Labor Department said Tuesday
the producer-price index gained 0.2% last month from February, in
line with expectations.
U.S. retail sales rose 0.9% in March to $441.4 billion, the
Commerce Department said Tuesday. That was the biggest monthly gain
in a year, but was weaker than the 1.1% increase expected by
economists.
European stocks were mostly lower. France's CAC 40 fell 0.6% and
Germany's DAX declined 0.5%.
In commodity markets, gold futures declined 0.8% to $1190.30 an
ounce. Crude-oil futures gained 0.9% to $52.37 a barrel.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.879% from
1.938% on Monday. Yields fall as prices rise.
Write to Saumya Vaishampayan at saumya.vaishampayan@wsj.com
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