Stocks closed lower on Wall Street Tuesday, bringing major indexes slightly below the record highs they set a day earlier. The S&P 500 fell 0.4%. Investors were weighing the latest quarterly earnings reports from big US companies and concerns about inflation. The latest report from the Labor Department showed yet another increase in consumer prices in June that surprised economists. Banks, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase helped kick off the latest round of corporate earnings reports, along with PepsiCo. The S&P 500 fell 15.42 points to 4,369.21. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 107.39 points, or 0.3%, to 34,888.79. The Nasdaq fell 55.59 points, or 0.4%, to 14,677.65. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 42.96 points, or 1.9%, to 2,238.86.
Goldman Sachs slipped 0.9% despite reporting the second-best quarterly profit in the investment bank's history. JPMorgan Chase fell 1.3% after giving investors a mixed report with solid profits but lower revenue as interest rates fell over the last three months. Solid earnings did help some companies make gains. PepsiCo rose 2.1% after beating Wall Street's second-quarter profit and revenue forecasts. Boeing fell 4% after announcing production cuts for its large 787 airliner because of a new structural flaw in some planes that have been built but not delivered to airline customers.
(More
stock market stories.)