US: Stocks fall as some company earnings disappoint

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks fell on Thursday following a mixed round of earnings, with investors battering companies that posted disappointing results.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.5 per cent at 25,064.50.

The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.3 per cent to 2,804.49, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.4 per cent to 7,825.30.

Investors have been bullish on second-quarter results amid projections that earnings overall could jump 20 per cent from the year-ago levels following the US tax reform.

Stocks have mostly risen during earnings season but "investors just wanted to digest some of the gains," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.

Large banks such as JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America fell more than one percent after rising earlier in the week on strong results.

Among other losers on Thursday, eBay sank 10.1 per cent after it lowered its full-year sales forecast, exacerbating worries the online marketplace is losing momentum to Amazon.

Alcoa plummeted 13.4 per cent as it cut its full-year profit forecast due in part to increased costs from US tariffs on aluminum imports.

Dow members American Express and Travelers also fell after earnings.

But IBM jumped 3.3 per cent after reporting a 3.1 per cent increase in second-quarter profits to US$2.4 billion on higher sales. Revenues rose in key growth businesses such as cloud computing and analytics.

Comcast gained 2.6 per cent as it said it was pulling out of the bidding war with Walt Disney for the film and television operations of Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox and would focus on acquiring the European pay TV operator Sky.

Fox lost 0.3 per cent while Disney gained 1.3 per cent.

AFP