US STOCKS--Wall St pauses as pandemic hurts consumer confidence and earnings; stimulus underwhelms

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By Sinéad Carew
July 28 (Reuters) - Wall Street closed lower on Tuesday as
investors fretted about weakening consumer confidence,
disappointing financial results and a smaller than hoped for
coronavirus aid plan from U.S. Senate Republicans.
Weighing down the Dow were industrial conglomerate 3M Co
MMM.N after it reported a second-quarter plunge in demand
across its businesses and McDonald's Corp MCD.N after a
surprisingly big drop in global same-store sales. Data released in the morning showed U.S. consumer confidence
ebbed in July as coronavirus infections flared up across the
country. As they waited on a stimulus package and for quarterly
reports in one of the busiest weeks in earnings season,
investors were also anticipating the U.S. Federal Reserve's
Wednesday wrap-up of its two day policy meeting.
"It's probably not a bad place to take some profits and
rebuild some liquidity because any of those three events could
lead to volatility," said Sameer Samana, Senior Global Market
Strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute in St. Louis.
Samana said "its going to be very hard for the Fed to
surprise on the positive side."
Florida reported a record one-day rise in coronavirus
deaths, and cases in Texas passed the 400,000 mark, stoking
fears the United States was losing control of the outbreak.
But Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney
Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia called the consumer survey
"unsettling" evidence that "individuals are increasingly
concerned about the recent surge in coronavirus impacting their
finances and their mobility."
Feeding the fears, members of congress were sparring over a
$1 trillion aid proposal from Senate Republicans announced on
Monday, four days before millions of Americans lose unemployment
benefits. "There has be tremendous compromise from both parties to get
to some agreement," he said, noting a congressional recess
scheduled for August adds deadline pressure.
"It's particularly critical at this time since the market is
really feeding off the largess that's been expended by fiscal
and monetary authorities," he said.
Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell
205.21 points, or 0.77%, to 26,379.56, the S&P 500 .SPX lost
20.87 points, or 0.64%, to 3,218.54 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC dropped 134.18 points, or 1.27%, to 10,402.09.
Materials .SPLRCM and Energy .SPNY were the biggest
percentage decliners of the S&P's 11 major sectors. Defensive
real estate .SPLRCR and utilities .SPLRCU sectors were the
biggest gainers.
The Fed was expected to reiterate its accommodative stance
after its meeting on Wednesday afternoon. On Tuesday, it said it
would extend several lending facilities through year end, a sign
the pandemic's economic impact has been longer than expected.
Another focus this week is results from Wall Street's
trillion-dollar market value companies - Apple Inc AAPL.O ,
Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O and Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O - as well as
Facebook Inc FB.O .
Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far
this quarter, about 80% surpassed significantly lowered
forecasts for quarterly profit, according to Refinitiv IBES
data, An average of 71% companies beat profit estimates over the
past four quarters.
Pfizer Inc PFE.N shares rose after it raised its full-year
forecast on strong demand for cancer drugs and blood thinners.
Late on Monday, the drugmaker announced a pivotal global study
to evaluate a COVID-19 vaccine candidate.