NEW YORK, Jan 23 — The benchmark S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were flat today as a mixed bag of earnings from industry bellwethers threatened to douse a recent rally, while the Dow treaded water on the back of losses in 3M.

3M tumbled 9.5 per cent after forecasting dour annual earnings as the company grapples with weak demand, while General Electric dropped 2.1 per cent after the engine maker’s bleak quarterly profit forecast.

Johnson & Johnson fell 2.5 per cent even after reporting quarterly results a nudge above expectations, while Verizon Communications forecast a strong annual profit and posted its highest quarterly subscriber additions in nearly two years, sending its shares up 4.8 per cent.

All eyes are on the profit outlook for corporate America after major US banks kicked off the ongoing earnings season, which has been mixed so far, with lower profits.

"A lot of these companies which had a pretty good quarter have issued cautious guidance ... so that weighs on people’s minds on whether they should be in this market,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth.

Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported results thus far, 86.6 per cent surpassed earnings expectations, compared with 93.1 per cent over a week ago, LSEG data showed.

The benchmark S&P 500 touched a fresh intraday record peak and closed at an all-time high for a second session on Monday, extending a bull-market run, fuelled by strength in megacap tech and chip stocks.

The blue-chip Dow also surpassed the 38,000-point mark for the first time yesterday, gaining for the third trading day.

The personal consumption expenditure (PCE) index — the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge — along with the S&P Global PMI readings and an advance fourth-quarter GDP print this week will be key in assessing the central bank’s next policy decision when it meets on January 31.

Wall Street had lost steam at the start of 2024, struck by a mixed bag of inflation data and Federal Reserve policymakers clamping down on market speculation of interest-rate cuts arriving as early as March this year.

Traders’ expectations of US monetary policy easing have now deferred to May, with an 84 per cent odd for an at least 25-basis-point cut, as per the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, compared with earlier expectations of March.

At 9.48am ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 78.55 points, or 0.21 per cent, at 37,923.26, the S&P 500 was up 4.05 points, or 0.08 per cent, at 4,854.48, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 21.07 points, or 0.14 per cent, at 15,381.35.

Eight of the 11 S&P 500 sectors crawled higher, with the communication services sector leading with a 0.7 per cent rise.

D.R. Horton shed 7.3 per cent as the homebuilder missed estimates for first-quarter profit, while Procter & Gamble topped second-quarter profit expectations, sending shares of the consumer goods firm up by 4.8 per cent.

RTX jumped 8.1 per cent on a 10 per cent surge in fourth-quarter revenue, while United Airlines gained 8.3 per cent following an upbeat full-year outlook.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.95-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.78-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 22 new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 63 new highs and 37 new lows. — Reuters