US: Stocks fall as big earnings week gets underway

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stock indices retreated from records on Monday as a heavy week of earnings got underway with results from Coca-Cola ahead of reports from Netflix, American Airlines and others.

Analysts attributed Monday's pullback to profit taking after the Dow and S&P 500 finished last week at all-time highs.

Earnings have generally outperformed expectations in the early going, but analysts say stocks may have difficulty climbing further.

"Each time the market goes high, it steps back and marches on to new highs. That is a sign of the market basically correcting itself a little bit, pulling back on intraday basis," Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities told AFP.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4 per cent to close at 34,077.63.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.5 per cent to 4,163.26, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.0 per cent to end at 13,914.77.

Coca-Cola advanced 0.7 per cent after reporting better-than-expected results as some key markets show recovery amid broader coronavirus vaccine availability.

"A lot of good news will be put to the test this week," Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare said in a note.

Meanwhile, Tesla fell 3.4 per cent following a crash in Texas that police said appeared to have no driver behind the wheel. The incident raised fresh questions about Tesla's "Autopilot" technology.

Two US transportation regulators said on Monday they will investigate the crash, which led to two fatalities.

GameStop jumped 6.3 per cent as it announced that George Sherman will step down as chief executive by the end of July, the latest announcement as videogame retailer revamps itself.

Harley-Davidson surged 9.7 per cent as it lifted key full-year revenue and profit forecast as it reported better-than-expected first quarter profits.

AFP