Investing.com — U.S. stocks struggled for direction on Tuesday as investors awaited quarterly results from major technology companies.
At 1:51 p.m. ET (17:51 GMT), it was up 14 points, or 0.04%, while the U.S. dollar was up 0.05%, and the U.S. dollar was up 0.1%.
Alphabet and Tesla prepare to kick off 'Magnificent 7' earnings presentation
Alphabet (NASDAQ:) and Tesla (NASDAQ:) are set to kick off gains for the 'Magnificent 7' cohort of mega-cap tech stocks, which also include Apple Inc (NASDAQ:), amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:), Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:)
Alphabet is set to offer more clues about how Wall Street's internet giants are benefiting from artificial intelligence, as well as how much they are spending on developing the new technology.
Tesla's earnings will show how the electric vehicle maker is coping with a sharp decline in demand, while attention will also be on its promises of ai-powered autonomous driving and robotaxis.
Coca-Cola and GE impress on earnings day, but UPS and General Motors lag
Coca-Cola (NYSE:) shares rose 1% after the soft drink giant raised its annual organic sales and profit forecast, indicating strong demand for its beverages in its U.S. and international markets.
GE Aerospace (NYSE:GE) shares rose 7% after the industrial giant raised its annual profit forecast due to strong demand for its aftermarket services, including jet engine parts.
General Motors Company (NYSE:) fell more than 6% after the automaker said it would delay plans to launch a new Buick electric vehicle and delay plans to open an electric truck factory, with GM's chief executive saying the cut in investment in electric vehicles was to ensure the automaker did not get ahead of demand.
United parcel Shares of Service (NYSE:) fell more than 13% after the package delivery service reported disappointing second-quarter earnings amid weak revenue in its domestic business.
The deluge of financial results is set to intensify this week, with roughly a quarter of the S&P 500 reporting results this week.
Political uncertainties persist
In addition to corporate earnings, investors will also be keeping an eye on the political outlook in the United States, where Vice President Kamala Harris appears likely to become the Democratic presidential nominee after President Joe Biden declared he will not seek re-election.
Recent polls showed Republican candidate Donald Trump ahead of Biden and Harris, although it was unclear whether Harris' nomination would change that trend.
Tuesday's economic data includes data for June and July.
However, the main economic data due this week are due on Friday, and the June data will test market expectations that the Federal Reserve is almost certain to cut interest rates in September.
Ether ETFs officially begin trading
It fell more than 1% even as the first wave of spot ether exchange-traded funds began trading. Ether ETFs from a host of issuers including Blackrock (NYSE:), Fidelity, Invesco and others.
The approval of the Ether ETFs comes just over six months since the launch of the bitcoin spot ETFs.
(Peter Nurse and Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
