NEW YORK, Oct 24 — A rise in shares of Microsoft and PayPal boosted the Nasdaq today, but poor earnings reports from Twitter and 3M dragged down the S&P 500 and Dow Jones indexes, taking the shine off what has been an upbeat earnings season so far.

Twitter Inc plunged about 18 per cent to a seven-month low after the social media platform posted disappointing quarterly results.

The wider communication services sector fell 0.9 per cent, logging the biggest decline among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors.

Post-it notes maker 3M dropped 5.16 per cent and was on course for its worst day in six months after lowering its full-year profit forecast.

The market is reacting to “micro volatility, which is driven by individual company names, and macro calm around trade,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York.

Third-quarter earnings reports have taken centre stage as investors try to gauge the fallout from a drawn out US-China trade war, which has already shown up in the domestic economy.

The narrative so far has been fairly positive, with only a small crop of companies including industrial giant Caterpillar, toymaker Hasbro Inc and chipmaker Texas Instruments blaming the tariff moves for denting results.

Of the 124 S&P 500 companies that reported results up to yesterday, more than 82 per cent topped earnings estimates, according to Refinitiv data. The S&P 500 index came within a hair’s breadth of its record high this week.

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said today the phase-one trade deal between Washington and Beijing would include much of an agreement scrapped in May around intellectual property.

At 10.22am ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 77.95 points, or 0.29 per cent, at 26,756.00, the S&P 500 was down 1.87 points, or 0.06 per cent, at 3,002.65.

The Nasdaq Composite was up 25.06 points, or 0.31 per cent, at 8,144.85.

Tech giant Microsoft Corp gained 1.82 per cent as its outlook for cloud computing services surpassed analysts’ expectations, while PayPal Holdings Inc rose 7.73 per cent on a strong full-year earnings forecast.

Lam Research Corp jumped 10.6 per cent, boosting the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index by 1.3 per cent after the chip equipment maker forecast strong results for the December quarter.

Dow Inc gained two per cent after the company exceeded profit estimates, while electric car maker Tesla Inc surged 15.12 per cent on a surprise quarterly profit.

Other high profile companies including Amazon.com Inc, Intel Corp and Visa Inc are slated to report after markets close today.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.12-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and for a 1.26-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 25 new 52-week highs and three new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 45 new highs and 21 new lows. — Reuters