NYSE with slight losses due to corporate results

Weak corporate results from Tesla and 3M dragged down major Wall Street indices on Tuesday. Investors on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) began to pay more attention to big tech companies like Microsoft and Alphabet.

Shares of electric car maker Tesla Inc were down 4%, pushing down the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. Its above-market earnings were supported by sales of environmental-related loans and a bitcoin liquidation rather than the sale of vehicles.

Shares of Microsoft Corp and Alphabet Inc were down more than 0.5% each. Meanwhile, shares of Apple Inc, Facebook Inc, and Amazon.com Inc – which will report results this week – were mixed.

The five companies combined account for around 22% of the S&P 500’s market capitalization. Analysts are waiting for guidance on where the market will go in the next six months to a year.

Overall, S&P 500 earnings are expected to jump 34.5% in the first quarter versus the same period last year.

Dow Jones increased by 0.01%, and Nasdaq dropped by 0.34% on the New York Stock Exchange. 

WHO warns that the pandemic continues to intensify globally

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the general director of the WHO, warned that the coronavirus pandemic continues to intensify around the world. He highlighted that infections are increasing for the ninth consecutive week and, for the sixth consecutive week, the death rate is growing. 

Various regions posted some decreases in Covid-19 cases. However, many countries are still experiencing intense transmission, such as India, where the situation is disheartening. 

The leader of the United Nations body recalled that they are doing everything they can to deal with the pandemic, providing the necessary supplies to hospitals and laboratories. In addition, they have provided personnel to support surveillance, technical advice, and vaccination efforts. Vaccines will help us end the COVID-19 pandemic, but only if we guarantee fair access for all countries and create robust systems to manage them, they added.