US STOCKS-Wall Street indexes enter earnings-heavy week on cautious footing

Domino's Pizza

27/04/2026 17:19

Indexes down: Dow 0.25%, S&P 500 0.12%, Nasdaq 0.27%

Trump cancels US envoys' visit to Pakistan

Microsoft down after amended partnership with OpenAI

Updates with afternoon trading

By Niket Nishant and Utkarsh    Hathi

April 27 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes fell on Monday as stalled U.S.-Iran peace talks kept markets on edge and investors awaited a torrent of earnings later this week to guide sentiment.

Dealing a new blow to peace prospects, President Donald Trump canceled a visit by two U.S. envoys to Pakistan, where talks with Iranian counterparts were expected to take place.

Stocks have climbed to fresh highs in recent days on earnings optimism even as back-and-forth headlines on the U.S.-Iran war swayed sentiment.

That optimism will face a key test during the quarter's busiest stretch of earnings this week. According to Raymond James, companies accounting for roughly 44% of the S&P 500's market capitalization are scheduled to report this week.

"It's the outlook for tech rather than the outlook for the broader U.S. economy that arguably matters most," said James Reilly, senior economist at Capital Economics.

Of the 139 companies in the benchmark that reported as of Friday, 81.3% surpassed earnings expectations, compared with the prior four-quarter average of 78.1%, according to data from LSEG.

The information technology and materials sectors are expected to post the strongest earnings growth this quarter, the data showed.

"With earnings growth so concentrated in one part of the market and looking quite optimistic, any sign of weakness in tech earnings would likely weigh heavily on the S&P 500 even if earnings data from the rest of the index continued to beat expectations," Reilly said.

Some analysts have also questioned how reliable the results are as a guide to future performance, since they reflect only one month of disruption linked to the Middle East war.

At 12:02 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 123.83 points, or 0.25%, to 49,106.88, the S&P 500 .SPX dropped 8.86 points, or 0.12%, to 7,156.24 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was down 66.25 points, or 0.27%, at 24,762.66.

The trajectory of oil prices remains the biggest unknown, as the crucial Strait of Hormuz is still closed. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were trading about 3% higher on Monday and are 50% above pre-war levels.

Investors will also hear from Federal Reserve policymakers, who will gather in Washington this week in what may be Jerome Powell's last meeting as head of the U.S. central bank.

Republican Senator Thom Tillis said on Sunday he would allow ​the Senate confirmation of Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh to go forward, after the Department of Justice dropped an investigation into Powell that Tillis said was a threat to the central bank's independence.

"With those obstacles now removed, the path appears clearer for Warsh's confirmation ahead of the next policy meeting (in June)," said Jefferies' chief U.S. economist Thomas Simons.

A Reuters poll of economists last week showed that the Fed is expected to wait at least six months before cutting interest rates this year.

Seven of the eleven main S&P sectors were in the red, with the S&P 500 consumer discretionary .SPLRCD leading losses with a 0.7% drop.

Microsoft MSFT.O dipped 0.4% after OpenAI said on Monday that the cloud computing provider will not have exclusive access to its artificial intelligence models and products.

Domino's Pizza DPZ.O dropped 9.6% after the pizza chain missed first-quarter sales estimates.

Nvidia NVDA.O gained 1.2% after jumping 4.3% in the previous session. The company has reclaimed a market valuation above $5 trillion.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.1-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.05-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 13 new 52-week highs and seven new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 102 new highs and 69 new lows.

 (Reporting by Niket Nishant and Utkarsh Hathi in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

 ((Niket.Nishant@thomsonreuters.com;))