US stocks edge lower as Pfizer and Under Armour sink

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are slipping Tuesday as first-quarter results from companies including drugmaker Pfizer and athletic apparel maker Under Armour disappointed Wall Street. Energy companies are declining as oil prices head lower. Health care companies are mostly higher as drugmaker AbbVie climbs after it announced a big stock buyback. Several overseas markets are closed for public holidays.

KEEPING SCORE: The S&P 500 index lost 7 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 2,640 as of 10 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average sank 159 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 24,033. The Nasdaq composite declined 11 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 7,055. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks slid 6 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 1,535.

EARNINGS: Pfizer slumped as its first-quarter sales fell short of estimates. The maker of pain medicine Lyrica and the blockbuster Prevnar 13 vaccine against pneumococcal infections said sales of older medicines slipped and its stock lost 2.3 per cent. Merck fell 1.1 per cent to $58.23 following its report. AbbVie gained 6.1 per cent to $102.49 after it said it will buy back $7.5 billion of its own stock.

Under Armour had a solid first quarter, but analysts were concerned about its profit margins and its North American business, where sales were unchanged from last year. A number of sporting goods companies have seen their stocks fall as investors worried about slowing sales of sneakers and other products. Under Armour fell 5.1 per cent to $14.57. Hanesbrands did better than expected to start the year but still lost 2.6 per cent to $17.99.

TECHNOLOGY: Electronic storage company Seagate Technology plunged 8.9 per cent to $52.73 after its fiscal third-quarter report. The stock has climbed 26 per cent this year. Apple rose 0.8 per cent to $166.51 as investors waited for its report, which will come after the close of trading.

COMMODITIES: Oil prices gave up some of their recent gains. Benchmark U.S. crude fell 1.3 per cent to $6.770 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the international standard, declined 1.2 per cent to $73.82 a barrel in London. Energy companies fell.

Gold fell 0.9 per cent to $1,370.50 an ounce and silver lost 0.9 per cent to $16.25 an ounce.

BONDS: Bond prices edged lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.97 per cent from 2.96 per cent. The 10-year yield hit a four-year high last week.

CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 109.68 yen from 109.29 yen. The euro fell to $1.2015 from 1.2082.

OVERSEAS: Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2 per cent and the Japanese Nikkei 225 rose 0.2 per cent. Markets in France and Germany, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul and most cities in Southeast Asia were closed for public holidays.

——–

AP Markets Writer Marley Jay can be reached at http://twitter.com/MarleyJayAP . His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/marley%20jay