Wall Street skips, disappointing bank profits

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street lost ground on Monday, dragged down by the financial crisis, as unsatisfactory bank earnings dampened investors' enthusiasm.

But, while the three major US stock indexes fell slightly, the S & P 500 remained within 1% of its record.

After a rally in January-March marking the best quarterly performance of the US stock market for nearly 10 years, stocks were pending in April, in anticipation of the reporting season of the first quarter.

Goldman Sachs fell 3.8% after first-quarter investment banking revenue was below analysts' expectations.

Citigroup Inc. posted a higher than expected profit, which helped reduce costs and offset lower revenues. Its shares ended the session nominally down, down 0.1%.

"Last week we came out of a good week," said Joseph Sroka, chief investment officer at NovaPoint in Atlanta. "So, any bad news or any report on the results this week, like the ones we saw with Goldman and Citigroup, will break that momentum."

With the reporting season in the first quarter moving up a gear, analysts now estimate that the S & P 500 companies are reporting a 2.1% drop in profits compared to the previous year. Although this is an improvement over recent estimates, it would still be the first annual decline in profits since 2016.

"We will have a clearer idea of ​​the progression of the week," added Sroka. "If we move into other sectors, we will have a clearer picture of corporate profits and the economy."

Bank of America Co, Morgan Stanley, Netflix Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Textron Inc., Honeywell International Inc., Schlumberger NV and American Express Co are among the monitored profits expected from this shortened week.

In addition to profits, "we still need to monitor global geopolitical events such as the US-China trade talks," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research in New York.

Sources said US negotiators softened claims that China should limit industrial subsidies as a precondition to a trade deal, marking a setback to one of the US's central objectives.

"It's a net positive," Stovall said. "The president wants to sign an agreement so he can continue."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 27.53 points, or 0.1%, to 26,384.77, the S & P 500 lost 1.83 points or 0.06% to 2,905.58 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 8.15 points or 0.1% to 7,976.01.

Of the 11 main sectors of the S & P 500, six ended the session in the red.

Financial stocks were the biggest losers, closing at 0.6% and taking their winning sequence over three days.

Waste Management Inc rose 2.4% after announcing the purchase of its smaller competitor, Advanced Disposal Services Inc., for about $ 3 billion.

Boeing Co slid 1.1% after US President Donald Trump tweeted that the planner needed to repair and "rename" his 737 MAX jet.

Lyft Inc. extended its slide by dropping 6.3%. The mobile phone platform, which debuted on the market in March, is now trading at around 22% below its $ 72 bid price.

Falling issuance outnumbered growth on the NYSE by a ratio of 1.21 to 1; on the Nasdaq, a ratio of 1.57: 1 favored the decline.

The S & P 500 recorded 56 new highs over 52 weeks and 1 new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 79 new highs and 46 new lows.

US trade volume amounted to 5.75 billion shares, compared with an average of 6.91 billion shares in the last 20 trading days.