NEW YORK, July 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks opened lower on Tuesday as investors sifted through a batch of corporate quarterly reports.
Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 72.32 points, or 0.33 percent, to 21,557.40. The S&P 500 lost 5.50 points, or 0.22 percent, to 2,453.64. The Nasdaq Composite Index erased 13.91 points, or 0.22 percent, to 6,300.52.
Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs reported earnings of 3.95 U.S. dollars a share earlier Tuesday, beating market estimates of 3.39 dollars and last year's second-quarter figure of 3.72 dollars. Goldman' s revenue of 7.89 billion dollars fell from 7.93 billion dollars, but beat expectations of 7.52 billion dollars.
However, the bank reported a 17-percent decrease in trading revenues, the steepest of any big bank to report second-quarter earnings yet. Shares of Goldman declined 0.5 percent in early trading Tuesday. The stock has lost 4-percent this year after surging more than 30-percent following the U.S. presidential election.
Meanwhile, Johnson&Johnson shares lost 0.4 percent on Tuesday after the consumer goods company said on Tuesday that it had a net income of 3.8 billion dollars, or 1.40 dollars per share, in the second quarter this year, lower than 3.9 billion dollars, or 1.43 dollars, in last year' s period.
Investors were awaiting more earnings reports later this week. According to S&P Capital IQ, overall earnings are expected to grow by 6.2 percent this quarter. Earnings in the first quarter rose by approximately 15 percent. Enditem
