US stocks fall ahead of tech earnings, Fed announcement

The US stocks finished lower for the first time in six consecutive sessions on Tuesday, 27 July 2021, as investors opted to secure recent profits on lower than expected capital goods data, concerns over Chinese regulatory crackdown on technology companies, and worries that the delta variant of the coronavirus will hurt global growth. Meanwhile, selloff also fuelled ahead of quarterly results from some of the most prominent names in the technology sector and the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index dropped 85.79 points, or 0.24%, to 35,059. The S&P 500 index declined 20.84 points, or 0.47%, at 4,401. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was down 180.14 points, or 1.21%, to 14,661.

Total 6 of 11 S&P 500 sectors inclined, with utilities (up 1.72%) sector was top gainer, followed by real estate (up 0.81%) and healthcare (up 0.44%) sectors, while consumer discretionary (down 1.16%) sector was worst performer, followed by communication services (down 1.06%), energy (down 1%), and industrials (down 0.5%) sectors.

U.S. stock indexes retreated from record highs on Tuesday partly due to uncertainty ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday. Traders were paying close attention to the Fed's statement for any clues the central bank is considering scaling back its asset purchase program.

Negative sentiment was also generated after reports that the CDC has recommend that people vaccinated for the coronavirus resume wearing masks indoors in areas of substantial or high transmission, particularly the South and West, amid the rapid spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus in regions with low vaccination rates.

More than one-third of the S&P 500 is set to report quarterly results this week, with tech giants Alphabet (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL) are also among the companies releasing their quarterly results after the close of today's trading.

Shares of UPS (UPS) and electric car maker Tesla (TSLA) moved lower despite reported a better than expected second quarter earnings.

Shares of General Electric (GE) closed higher after the industrial conglomerate reported better than expected second quarter results.

ECONOMIC NEWS: The Commerce Department released a report showing durable goods orders climbed by 0.8% in June after spiking by an upwardly revised 3.2% in May. Excluding orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders rose by 0.3% in June following a 0.5% increase in May.

A separate report from the Conference Board showed consumer confidence index inched up to 129.1 in July from an upwardly revised 128.9 in June.

Among Indian ADR, Wipro fell 0.12% to $8.35, and Dr Reddys Labs fell 12.38% to $63.62. Tata Motors fell 2.18% to $19.27, ICICI Bank fell 1.03% to $18.17, Vedanta fell 5.94% to $14.09, and HDFC Bank fell 0.84% to $69.78. WNS Holdings added 0.39% to $80.58. INFOSYS closed steady at $21.71.

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