Investing.com – Wall Street was flat on Tuesday after a mixed batch of earnings reports dampened sentiment.
The Dow was up 21 points or 0.1% by 9:55 AM ET (13:55 GMT), while the S&P 500 rose 1 point or 0.1% and the Nasdaq composite fell 16 points or 0.2%.
Shares of tech giant Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) fell 2.3% after the company's fell further than expected due to higher costs in cloud computing, while Beyond Meat (NASDAQ:BYND) tumbled 19.5%, after a surprise profit was offset by a warning that further discounting would be needed to defend market share. The company's post-IPO lockup period, which covers almost 80% of its shares, is also looming.
General Motors (NYSE:GM), meanwhile, rose 5.1% after its earnings beat forecast, despite a hit from the lengthy strike by UAW workers that only ended last week.
Elsewhere, pharma giants Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Merck (NYSE:MRK) were up 3.8% and 2.2% respectively after the drug companies raised their full-year forecasts.
Third-quarter earnings of S&P 500 companies have largely been better than expected, with over 78% of the 204 that have reported so far surpassing profit expectations, according to Refinitiv data.
"It's a little bit of a retracement trade from yesterday's move in the equity markets," said John Brady, senior vice president at R.J. O’Brien & Associates in Chicago, adding that the overall earning picture remained "decent".
Investors are also focused on the Federal Reserve meeting which starts today and concludes on Wednesday. The central bank is expected to cut rates for the third time this year on Wednesday due to concerns that the U.S. economy is slowing.
In commodities, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was flat at 97.540 and gold futures slipped 0.6% to $1,486.95 a troy ounce. Crude oil futures tumbled 1.5% to $54.95 a barrel.
-Reuters contributed to this report