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Gold sets another record high

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks pulled lower on Wall Street Tuesday following a mixed set of earnings reports from dozens of big U.S. companies.

The S&P 500 fell 20.97 points, or 0.6%, to 3,218.44 after a last-hour slide erased a small gain from earlier in the day. Caution across markets also helped send Treasury yields a bit lower and gold a bit further into record heights.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 205.49 points, or 0.8%, to 26,379.28, and the Nasdaq composite lost 134.18, or 1.3%, to 10,402.09.

This week marks the heart of earnings reporting season for the S&P 500, and several big companies gave results that fell short of analysts’ already lowered expectations as the pandemic stole customers away and increased some costs.

3M was a particularly heavy weight on the Dow after dropping 4.8%. The maker of N95 masks and various other products for consumers and businesses reported a profit for the latest quarter that fell shy of analysts’ expectations. It said sales trends have been improving this month, but it also said there’s still too much uncertainty to offer forecasts for future performance.

McDonald’s lost 2.5% after its earnings during the spring plunged by more than two-thirds from a year earlier as the pandemic kept customers away. The results were weaker than Wall Street was expecting.

Ecolab slumped 8.6% for one of the largest losses in the S&P 500 after it said its profit fell more steeply last quarter than analysts expected. The company sells sanitizing and other products to food service companies and other customers, and it was hurt by shutdowns in travel and dining due to the pandemic. It also said, though, that it expects the latest quarter to mark the low point for the company.

Losses for big technology stocks also helped to drag the market lower. The CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google’s parent company are all set to give testimony today to a House of Representatives committee investigating Big Tech’s market dominance.

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