Investing.com — U.S. stocks fell Tuesday as investors digested a string of corporate quarterly earnings, with the banking sector in the spotlight.
The index fell 325 points, or 0.75%, while the index fell 42 points, or 0.7%, and the index fell 181 points, or 1%.
Bank profits in the spotlight
Investors’ focus has been squarely on the third-quarter earnings season, which picked up in earnest on Tuesday.
The banking sector is in the spotlight, with Goldman Sachs (NYSE:) beating Q3 expectations, with Global Banking & Markets a key driver of the strong performance, with quarterly net revenue of $8.55 billion. Shares closed 0.07% lower that day.
Shares of Bank of America (NYSE:) rose 0.6% after the second-largest U.S. lender posted net earnings per share that beat expectations despite a year-over-year decline as higher investment banking costs helped to compensate for a slight annual decline in net interest income.
Elsewhere, shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:) rose 15.8% after the pharmacy chain operator said it would close 1,200 stores over the next three years as part of a reorganization, narrowly beating Wall Street’s lowered estimates for the adjusted profit for the fourth quarter. .
Shares of Boeing (NYSE:) rose 2.3% in volatile trading after the aerospace giant entered into a $10 billion credit agreement with a consortium of banks, but also filed a registration statement with the US markets regulator, allowing the company can raise up to $25 billion. by offering different debt securities and share classes.
Elsewhere, semiconductor company ASML’s (AS:) disappointing results have weighed on shares, with disappointing third-quarter bookings and full-year expectations pushing shares down significantly, currently down more than 16%. Nvidia (NASDAQ:) and AMD (NASDAQ:) also fell after the ASML release.
Crude oil falls due to demand fears
Oil prices fell sharply on Tuesday, adding to recent losses on growing concerns about a slowdown in demand growth, especially from top exporter China.
At 4:20 PM ET, the Brent contract was down 3.7% at $74.58 per barrel, while U.S. crude oil futures (WTI) were trading 4% lower at $70.91 per barrel.
Both benchmarks were down about 2% on Monday, continuing to retreat after China posted a fifth straight month of decline in oil imports, raising fears of weak demand.
These fears were exacerbated by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries lowering its oil demand outlook for the third month in a row.
Oil prices also took a hit as traders charged a risk premium after a report Monday said Israel will not attack Iran’s oil and nuclear facilities. Such a strike would have marked a major escalation of the conflict and made investors concerned about a disruption of supplies from this oil-rich region.
(Ambar Warrick, Peter Nurse and Sam Boughedda contributed to this article.)
