U.S. stocks slip on earnings, dollar off highs

By Hilary Russ

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on disappointing earnings reports on Tuesday, while the U.S. dollar slipped from multi-month highs after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney cast doubt on expectations for more monetary stimulus.

Oil prices fell more than 1 percent, with U.S. crude breaking below $50 per barrel for a second straight day, ahead of weekly data that could show a build in inventories.

On Wall Street, nine of the eleven sectors in the benchmark S&P 500 stock index closed lower, with housing and consumer products companies among those failing to live up to forecasts on third-quarter earnings.

Shares of some big names, including Whirlpool , General Motors Co , Caterpillar Inc and 3M , all lost ground.

"We had a rally (Monday) and haven't been able to sustain it, due to weaker-than-expected numbers from some names," said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook Investments in Lisle, Illinois. He called the day's earnings report a "mixed bag" for stocks.

Another third of the S&P 500 is scheduled to report earnings this week, including heavyweights Apple , Alphabet , Amazon and Boeing .

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 53.76 points, or 0.3 percent, to 18,169.27, the S&P 500 lost 8.17 points, or 0.38 percent, to 2,143.16 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 26.43 points, or 0.5 percent, to 5,283.40.

The dollar was a hair lower against a basket of major currencies after touching an eight-month high.

Growing expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve would raise interest rates in December had boosted the dollar to its highest level in more than seven months against the euro and about three months against the yen.

When BoE policymakers meet next week to consider whether to cut interest rates, they will "undoubtedly" take sterling's weakness into account, BoE Governor Mark Carney told lawmakers on Tuesday.

"Carney's comments cast doubt on easing from Europe," said Kathy Lien, managing director at BK Asset Management in New York.

Sterling slumped to its lowest level since the Oct. 7 "flash crash" but recovered some of its losses on Carney's remarks. The pound was last down 0.47 percent.

In European stocks, mining companies <.SXPP> rose 3.2 percent, lifted in part by Anglo American , up 4.55 percent after its production update. Anglo is the top-performing stock on Europe's STOXX 600 <.STOXX> this year.

The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index <.FTSE> extended gains, closing up 0.45 percent.

Germany's DAX <.GDAXI> turned slightly lower, ending down 0.04 percent, after hitting its highest level of the year. The closely-watched Ifo survey beat expectations, a day after purchasing manager numbers had done the same.

Metal prices surged, with zinc up 2.37 percent at $2,366.85, but off an earlier three-week high of $2,376. It is up nearly 60 percent from January lows on worries about shortages.

Other commodity prices slipped, though, as many are priced in U.S. dollars. U.S. crude oil futures settled 56 cents lower at $49.96 per barrel, down 1.11 percent.

(Additional reporting by Sam Forgione and Rodrigo Campos in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Dan Grebler)