Wall Street stocks were mostly lower early Tuesday following two strong sessions as markets digested a trove of mixed earnings from industrial heavyweights.
The results included a drop in profits from conglomerate 3M, pointing to weak demand in consumer-facing markets, and an upbeat report from defense contractor Raytheon Technologies, which has benefited from the comeback in its aerospace business.
About 25 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.3 percent at 33,540.14.
The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.2 percent to 4,012.20, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.1 percent at 11,369.84.
Tuesday’s early losses suggest nervousness “that the stock market has gotten ahead of itself and is due for a pullback,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.
But he added: “We can’t put an eventual rebound try past the market, which has defied bearish expectations all year, bouncing back from bouts of weakness, catalyzed by the hope that the economy will achieve a soft landing.”
Trading on a handful of large stocks including Visa and Wells Fargo was briefly halted early Tuesday due to an apparent technology glitch. But the stocks were trading normally soon after the open.
jmb/bys