Stocks mixed after Wall Street records, all eyes on earnings

Stock markets treaded water on Tuesday as investors eyed a raft of corporate earnings.

The Dow opened lower while the broad-based S&P 500 rose, a day after both Wall Street indices reached record highs.

European stocks markets were also mixed, with London up in afternoon deals. Frankfurt and Paris were in the red.

Hong Kong led a rally in Asia on reports that Chinese officials are preparing new measures to bolster stocks and overall economy after months of slugging growth.

"It feels more like a touch of profit-taking as traders look across to the US, wondering where now, following its record-setting start to this week, and the year," added David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation.

Corporate results season is in full swing, with a slew of companies publishing quarterly and annual figures.

Consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble painted a mixed picture in its earnings report, as price hikes supported revenue growth but customers appeared to pull back in some purchases.

US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson confirmed its forecast of five to six percent sales growth in the current fiscal year.

In Europe, Swedish telecoms equipment giant Ericsson warned that it expected further market decline outside China this year after booking a sizeable loss in 2023.

In a sign of the fading inflation fears, oil prices fell on expectations that supply will outstrip global demand this year, offsetting the Middle East worries sparked by the war in Gaza.

This week's release of fourth-quarter US GDP and consumer inflation data are also awaited as investors try to gauge when the Federal Reserve might begin to cut interest rates if inflation continues to trend down.

The ECB, which holds a policy meeting Thursday, is unlikely to cut rates but its president Christine Lagarde could provide more guidance after saying last week that easing could begin this summer.

In Asia, the Hong Kong stock market closed up 2.6 percent and Shanghai also pushed higher after it emerged that Chinese Premier Li Qiang had called for more "forceful" measures to support China's battered stocks.

Hong Kong has lost about 10 percent since the turn of the year and Shanghai more than seven percent on worries that officials are not doing enough to help the economy, which grew last year at its slowest pace since 1990, excluding the Covid pandemic years.

Authorities are looking at a raft of initiatives, Bloomberg reported, adding that policymakers were seeking to mobilise nearly $280 billion, mainly from the offshore accounts of state-owned enterprises.

"It sounds like something had been readied in response to the recent equity rout," said Neo Wang at Evercore ISI.

"The market was poor enough to warrant such elevated attention -- China cannot afford to see A-shares sinking toward the Lunar New Year holidays."

Tokyo edged down on profit-taking after a surge in recent weeks pushed the Nikkei to three-decade highs. The Bank of Japan held off tightening monetary policy, as expected, and gave no clues about a timetable for a hawkish pivot from its ultra-loose position. 

- Key figures around 1445 GMT -

New York - Dow: DOWN 0.2 percent at 37,910.52 points

New York - S&P 500: UP 0.1 percent at 4,856.47

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 7,493.97 

Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.4 percent at 7,380.33

Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 0.2 percent at 16,649.22

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.4 percent at 4,461.74

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.1 percent at 36,517.57 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 2.6 percent at 15,353.98 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.5 percent at 2,770.98 (close)

New York - Dow: UP 0.4 percent at 38,001.81 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0857 from $1.0885 on Monday

Dollar/yen: UP at 148.30 yen from 148.13 yen

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2687 from $1.2708

Euro/pound: DOWN at 85.58 pence from 85.63 pence

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.7 percent at $74.23 per barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.8 percent at $79.44 per barrel