U.S. stocks fell Tuesday after disappointing results at blue-chip companies like Microsoft Corp. and Caterpillar Inc. sparked concerns about the strong dollar’s drag on earnings growth. Earlier in the session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down as many as 390 points, but in afternoon trading stocks pared some losses. The S&P 500 declined 19 points, or 0.9%, to 2038, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 60 points, or 1.3%, to 4711. Durable-goods orders fell 3.4% in December, raising questions about whether businesses are really ready to ramp up investment in 2015.
– It's a miserable day on Wall Street so far, with the Dow plunging more than 370 points about an hour after the open. MarketWatch says one of the driving factors is a weak report on durable-goods orders, which suggests that businesses are worried about a slowdown rather than investing in growth. Also not helping: disappointing quarterly results from a slew of blue-chip companies, reports the Wall Street Journal. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 were down 2.2% and 1.7% respectively.