Stock market today: US markets lower as earnings pour in ahead of Fed rate decision

Wall Street limped early Tuesday with corporate earnings rolling in and the Federal Reserve’s next interest rate decision imminent.

Futures for the S&P 500 and futures for the Dow Jones industrials each slipped less than 0.2% before the bell.

UPS tumbled more than 7% after the package delivery company unexpectedly dialed back expectations for the year.

General Motors climbed nearly 8% as the automaker’s profit and sales rose by double-digit percentages last year.

Microsoft, Google and Starbucks report their latest financial results after the bell Tuesday.

Also Tuesday, the US reports on job openings for November and the Conference Board releases consumer confidence data for January.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will make its next decision on what to do with interest rates. Most expect the Fed will no make any changes, but there is hope that it may cut rates in March. That would be the first downward move since the Fed began dramatically raising interest rates two years ago to get inflation under control.

There is a lot of evidence suggesting that the Fed may be able to pull off a so-called economic “soft landing” after a period of accelerated inflation. The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge cooled further last month even as the economy kept growing briskly, a trend sure to be welcomed at the White House as President Joe Biden seeks re-election in a race that could pivot on his economic stewardship.

On Friday, the U.S. government will release its monthly jobs report. Economists expect continued growth in hiring, but at a cooler pace. That’s exactly what the Fed wants to see after surging U.S. growth contributed to rising prices.

Elsewhere, in Europe at midday, Britain’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.6%, Germany’s DAX rose 0.2% and the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.5%.

Shares in property developer China Evergrande Group, the world’s most heavily indebted real estate company with more than $300 billion in liabilities, remained suspended from trading after a Hong Kong court ordered the company to be liquidated because it is insolvent.

But shares in China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group closed 4.4% higher after they resumed trading following a suspension on Monday. Evergrande Property Services fell lost 3.9%.

Other property companies led the decline in Hong Kong, where the benchmark Hang Seng index sank 2.3% to 15,703.45. Country Garden tumbled 5.7% and Sunac China Holdings was down 7.1%. Guangzhou R&F Properties lost 5.5%.

Technology companies also retreated, with food delivery company Meituan down 2.8% and e-commerce giant Alibaba falling 2%.

The Shanghai Composite index gave up 1.8% to 2,830.53.

Chinese regulators have been moving to prop up the markets, among the world’s worst performing so far this year, amid worries about the troubled property industry and slowing growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

“Skepticism persists regarding the equity plunge protection plan,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary. “While measures akin to a band-aid on a broken leg may temporarily boost stock prices, they do little to stabilize earnings or foster growth.”

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index edged 0.1% higher to 36,065.86 and the Kospi in South Korea edged 0.1% lower, to 2,498.81. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 picked up 0.3% to 7,600.20.

Bangkok’s SET lost 0.2% while India’s Sensex shed 1.1%.

In other trading Tuesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil gave back 20 cents at $76.58 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It dropped $1.23 to settle at $76.78 a barrel on Monday.

A barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, lost 28 cents to $81.55 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar fell to 147.36 yen from 147.50 yen. The euro rose to $1.0842 from $1.0835.

On Monday, U.S. stocks gained as they kicked off a week where Wall Street’s most influential stocks may show whether the huge expectations built up for them are justified.

The S&P 500 gained 0.8% and the Dow industrials climbed 0.6%. The Nasdaq composite jumped 1.1%.