Forexpros – U.S. stocks were mixed on Tuesday, as investors remained cautious as the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting due to begin later in the day, while markets also eyed the European Central Bank’s own meeting scheduled on Thursday.
During early U.S. trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.15%, the S&P 500 index inched 0.02% higher, while the Nasdaq Composite index rose 0.35%.
Although a majority of market participants seemed to believe the Fed will not announce any new stimulus measures this week, investors were eyeing the outcome of the two-day meeting for hints of additional measures in the near future.
Meanwhile, expectations have been building that the ECB will announce measures to stem the long running debt crisis after central bank head Mario Draghi pledged last week to do whatever is necessary to preserve the euro.
But investors remained wary amid concerns that an inadequate policy response by the ECB could send markets lower.
Among earnings, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer jumped 1.52% after posting second-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ estimates.
Drug distributor AmerisourceBergen also surged 3.74% after saying it won an USD18.5 billion drug contract from pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts.
In addition, Aetna reported better than expected second-quarter earnings while boosting its 2012 outlook, sending shares up 1.40%.
Elsewhere, General Motors advanced 0.67%, amid reports the ousting of its global marketing chief, Joel Ewanick, was related to a hugely expensive sponsorship deal with England’s Manchester United soccer club for which GM is paying twice as much as the team’s previous automotive sponsor.
GM announced Ewanick’s resignation on Monday, a little more than two years after he joined the company to lead an overhaul of the company’s marketing strategy.
Also in the auto sector, Toyota rallied 1.83% as it was reportedly set to raise its 2012 global sales forecast to 8.8 million vehicles from the 8.58 million it had announced in February, thanks to solid auto sales in emerging economies.
On the downside, oil and gas major BP saw shares plummet 3.87% after the group reported a loss in the second quarter, due to lower output, falling oil prices and a near USD5.0-billion write down on the value of assets.
Financial stocks also contributed to losses, as shares in Citigroup dropped 0.48% and Goldman Sachs declined 0.46%, while Bank of America and JP Morgan retreated 0.27% and 0.06% respectively.
Other stocks in focus included Electronic Arts, Take Two and DreamWorks, all due to report results later in the day.
Across the Atlantic, European stock markets were mixed. The EURO STOXX 50 fell 0.16%, France’s CAC 40 declined 0.29%, Germany’s DAX added 0.11%, while Britain’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.32%.
During the Asian trading session, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rallied 1.08%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index advanced 0.69%.
Also Tuesday, the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller composite-20 house price index fell less-than-expected in May, ticking down 0.7% after a 1.9% decline the previous month.
A separate report showed that manufacturing activity in Chicago improved unexpectedly in July.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release a report on consumer confidence.
Forexpros
