Wall Street lower amid mixed earnings, fall in commodities

By Tanya Agrawal

REUTERS - Wall Street was lower in late morning trading on Friday for the fourth straight day after a mixed bag of earnings from big companies and the downward spiral of commodities.

Metal prices hit multi-year lows as weaker-than-expected data from China and the euro zone raised concerns about global growth while oil prices neared four-month lows.

The three major indexes were poised to end the week in the red after disappointing corporate results and forecasts added to concerns about the U.S. profit outlook.

Adding to the day's pressure, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will propose nearly doubling the U.S. capital gains tax rate on short-term investments, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Data on Friday showed new U.S. single-family home sales fell in June to their lowest level in seven months and May's sales were revised sharply lower. Other data showed manufacturing activity nudged up in July after slowing for three straight months.

"We are not going to see a lot of earnings growth in the second half of the year as the economic data hasn't been very strong," said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago.

"The fall in commodities is also a concerns that global growth is slowing and that ties into U.S. growth too."

Amazon.com shares jumped as much as 20.4 percent to a record high of $580.57, a day after the online retailer posted an unexpected quarterly profit.

Dow component Visa was up 5.4 percent at $75.61 after the credit and debit card company's results handsomely beat expectations.

Starbucks rose 1.9 percent to $57.65 after the world's biggest coffee chain reported a higher quarterly profit.

At 11:04 a.m. ET (1504 GMT), the Dow Jones industrial average was down 72.93 points, or 0.41 percent, at 17,658.99, the S&P 500 was down 8.23 points, or 0.39 percent, at 2,093.92 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 4.97 points, or 0.1 percent, at 5,141.44.

Biogen's 16.9 percent slump weighed the most on the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 after the biotechnology company cut its 2015 forecast.

Six of the 10 major S&P 500 indexes were lower with the health index's 1.37 percent fall leading the decliners.

Second-quarter S&P 500 earnings have been mixed, with 74 percent of companies so far beating analysts' profit expectations but just 52 percent surpassing revenue expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data.

RBC Capital Markets said investors were treating disappointing stocks harshly. While only 20 percent of companies have missed expectations, below the 23 percent over the past three years, there was a 3.5 percent selloff versus the 2.4 percent seen historically, a note said.

Adding to the concerns regarding lukewarm earnings, the S&P 500 is relatively expensive, trading at 16.9 times forward 12 months' earnings, above the 10-year median of 14.7 times, according to StarMine data.

Stancorp Financial Group soared 48.2 percent to $113.70 after Japan's Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance said it has agreed to buy the company for $5 billion.

Truecar slumped 37 percent to $6.73 after the online car-shopping service provider cut full-year revenue forecast.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 1,943 to 939. On the Nasdaq, 1,629 issues fell and 945 advanced.

The S&P 500 index showed 12 new 52-week highs and 42 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 38 new highs and 125 new lows.

(Editing by Don Sebastian)