By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks relinquished much of their
gains on Tuesday, with benchmark indexes withdrawing from intraday
records, as a regional gauge of manufacturing prompted concern.
Wall Street had began modestly higher as companies from DuPont
Co. (DD) to Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) beat earnings
expectations.
Stocks relinquished much of their gains as the Federal Reserve
Bank of Richmond's index of service-sector activity softened in
July.
"While the Richmond manufacturing survey is never market moving
itself, its weakness following the better New York and Philly
reports points to a still mixed bag in manufacturing," emailed
Peter Boockvar, chief market strategist at the Lindsey Group
LLC.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) climbed 33.02 points, or
0.2%, to 15,578.57, after rising to an intraday record of
15,604.22.
Dow component DuPont (DD) shares climbed 2.7% after the chemical
producer reported a drop in quarterly earnings and said it was
considering a spinoff or potential sale of its
performance-chemicals business.
Also lifting the blue-chip index, United Technologies Corp.
(UTX) rose 2.5% after it reported quarterly earnings above Wall
Street estimates.
Halting gains after a four-session winning streak, the S&P
500 index (SPX) fell half a point to 1,695.02, with consumer
staples pacing sector losses.
The S&P 500 rose to its 23rd record close this year on
Monday, after the financial and health-care sectors led the market
higher.
United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) shares edged lower after the
global shipper reported a smaller quarterly profit, and Lockheed
Martin Corp. (LMT) gained 3% after an earnings beat.
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) gained 2.1% after
the biggest publicly traded copper producer reported second-quarter
earnings that topped estimates.
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) dropped 1.2%, a day after the
online-entertainment service reported subscriber growth below some
estimates in the second quarter, although earnings surged compared
with the same period a year ago.
CapitalSource Inc. (CSE) jumped 21% after PacWest Bancorp (PACW)
said it would acquire the commercial lender for about $2.29 billion
in cash and stock.
Sourcefire Inc. (FIRE) shares rallied after Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) agreed to buy the cybersecurity company in a deal worth about $2.7 billion.
But tech giant Apple (AAPL) will likely garner much of the
attention Tuesday after weak results from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)
and Google Inc. (GOOG) last week.
The Nasdaq Composite (RIXF) lost 5.95 points, or 0.2%, to
3,594.43.
For every three shares sliding, four gained on the New York
Stock Exchange, where 126 million shares traded as of 10:15 a.m.
Eastern. Composite volume neared 609 million.
In other financial markets, gold prices nudged lower after an
impressive run on Monday, when the August contract (GCQ3) posted
the heftiest one-day rally in more than a year.
Short-covering likely factored into gold's bounce after prices
fell more than 30% from late 2012, with Federal Reserve Chairman
Ben Bernanke's pushback against monetary tightening a factor
driving the action, wrote Marc Chandler, global head of currency
strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., in emailed
commentary.
But the impact could be short-lived. "Despite the market's
recent misinterpretation of the Fed's tone regarding QE
[quantitative easing] exit, genuine inflation concerns are nowhere
on the horizon, neither is systemic risk -- two key variables that
typically support sustained gold rallies. On the demand side, India
has just placed yet more restrictions on gold imports," he
wrote.
Tuesday's data calendar also had the Federal Housing Finance
Agency's home-price index for May rising 0.7%.
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