BANGKOK (AP) — Wall Street inched lower early Tuesday as more corporate earnings trickled in but a lack of economic data gave markets little to work with coming off their best week of the year.
Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.3% before the bell.
The stock markets have been pushed in both directions in recent months by bond yields, which fell considerably last week, giving oxygen to equities. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield was at 4.62% early Tuesday, down from 4.66% late Monday. The yield on the 2-year Treasury inched down to 4.93% from 4.94% late Monday. It was at 5.21% just weeks ago.
High bond yields hurt prices for stocks and other investments, slow the economy and raise pressure on the financial system.
This upcoming week will be a slower one for corporate profit reports. Roughly 50 companies in the S&P 500, mostly lower profile, are set to say how much they earned during the summer. That's down from about 150 companies that reported last week.
The events with perhaps the most potential to shake markets this upcoming week are speeches by officials from the Federal Reserve.
Last week, the Federal Reserve held its main interest rate steady for a second straight time, leaving it at its highest level since 2001. It’s jacked up its federal funds rate from nearly zero in hopes of getting high inflation under control.
The week’s end will bring a preliminary report on U.S. households’ inflation expectations. The Fed watches that closely on the premise that too-high expectations could trigger a vicious cycle that keeps inflation high.
In premarket trading Tuesday, Uber rose nearly 1% after the ride-hailing company said gross bookings grew 21% from last year, boosting its third-quarter profit to $221 million on sales of $9.3 billion.
Late Monday, office-sharing company WeWork confirmed it is seeking bankruptcy protection. Trading in its shares was halted Monday amid speculation over its restructuring plans.
It's a stunning decline for a one-time Wall Street darling that promised to upend the way people went to work around the world. The company's shares cost more than $400 two years ago but now cost less than $1.
Elsewhere, in Europe at midday, Germany’s DAX slipped 0.3%, the CAC 40 in Paris fell 0.6% and Britain’s FTSE 100 was effectively flat.
In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 declined 1.3% to 32,271.82 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong dropped 1.7% to 17,670.16 The Shanghai Composite index slipped less than 0.1% to 3,057.27.
China reported its imports rose 3% in October from a year earlier, the first such increase in over a year, while exports fell 6.4%, the sixth straight monthly decline. The trade surplus fell to $56.5 billion.
Expectations that China's growth will remain slow helped pull oil prices lower.
A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude gave up $1.37 to $79.45 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It rose 31 cents to settle at $80.82 a barrel on Monday.
Brent crude, the international standard, gave up $1.51 to $83.67 a barrel. It rose 29 cents to $85.18 per barrel on Monday.
Elsewhere in Asia, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.3% to 6,977.10 after the central bank raised its key interest rate by 0.25 percentage points, to 4.35%.
In Seoul, the Kospi dropped 2.3% to 2,443.96. It gained 5.7% on Monday after the government, seeking to shore up public support ahead of legislative elections in April, restored until the end of June a ban on short-selling to protect small investors from what regulators said was “massive illegal naked short-selling by global investment banks” and other illegal activities.
In other trading Tuesday, the U.S. dollar rose to 150.49 Japanese yen from 150.08 yen. The euro fell to $1.0679 from $1.0719.
On Monday, U.S. stocks drifted and the S&P 500 added 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% higher and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.3%.
