Investing.com – Wall Street fell on Thursday as mixed corporate earnings kept gains in check, while the European Central Bank gave only a brief boost to markets by signalling it would ease monetary policy in September.
The Dow slumped 130 points or 0.5% by 9:50 AM ET (13:50 GMT), while the S&P 500 was down 13 points or 0.5% and the Nasdaq composite lost 60 points or 0.7%.
3M (NYSE:MMM) rose 2.4% as health care sales helped its earnings beat estimates, while Southwest fell 3.2% after it said its results were pressured by the continued grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX jet. It said it intends to cease operations at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty Airport, due largely to the 737 MAX issue.
Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) slipped 0.9% as its revenue fell short of forecasts, while Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) slumped 14.5% after it pushed back its timeline for reaching profitability, while reporting a bigger-than-expected net loss in the quarter.
"I don't think it's all too surprising that we're getting a mixed bag of earnings and some pockets of weakness. The key for investors is if these pockets of weakness are a sign of an economic downturn or just a slow patch," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Meanwhile, the ECB indicated it would cut rates and introduce other ways to ease monetary policy in September to help support the Eurozone economy. That was still a disappointment to a large minority that had expected action already this week. The euro rose slightly against the dollar, while a temporary lift to Eurozone stock markets soon faded.
The Federal Reserve is expected to cut rates at its policy meeting on July 31.
In commodities, crude oil rose 0.8% to $56.35 a barrel while gold futures fell 0.4% to $1,418.65 a troy ounce. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.2% to 97.285.
-Reuters contributed to this report