Wall St. slips on earnings; Apple results due

By Rodrigo Campos

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks slipped from two-week highs on Tuesday as results and forecasts from companies in sectors, including housing and consumer products, failed to live up to expectations.

Apple , the largest U.S. company by market capitalization, was expected to report results after the closing bell.

Whirlpool , down 10.8 percent to $152.09, cited soft demand as it posted lower-than-expected earnings and gave an underwhelming forecast. Sherwin Williams' outlook also disappointed Wall Street and shares fell 10.9 percent to $247.61.

Both were an indication to some analysts that the housing sector may be cooling.

"Lackluster results from Whirlpool and Sherwin Williams may indicate a slowing in the housing cycle," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.

 

She said those results could be weighing on Home Depot , which was down 3.5 percent at $123.34 as the largest points decliner on the S&P 500. Lowes Cos fell 3.5 percent to $68.47.

Consumer products company Procter & Gamble rose 3.4 percent to $86.97 after reporting a better-than-expected quarterly profit, while sportswear maker Under Armour fell 13.2 percent to $32.89 after it reported its slowest quarterly sales growth in six years.

"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, calling the day's earnings a "mixed bag."

Overall, annualized third-quarter earnings from S&P 500 companies are expected to have risen 1.7 percent, effectively putting an end to an earnings recession, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Of the 150 companies that have reported so far, 75.3 percent have beaten analyst expectations, above the long-term average of 63.5 percent.

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

3M fell 2.9 percent to $166.23 after the maker of Scotch tape and Post-it notes trimmed its full-year revenue and earnings forecasts for the second time.

Caterpillar lost 1.8 percent after a downbeat forecast, while General Motors fell 4.2 percent amid fears regarding future profits.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.53-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.17-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 11 new 52-week highs and 9 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 67 new highs and 73 new lows.

About 6.29 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, compared with the 6.4 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Dan Grebler and Nick Zieminski)