S&P 500, Dow set to ease from record levels; Coca-Cola rises on results

(Reuters) -The S&P 500 and the Dow were set to slip from record levels on Monday as investors looked to the first-quarter earnings season for hints that corporate America was recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coca-Cola Co rose 1% in premarket trading after the world’s largest beverage maker trounced estimates for quarterly profit and revenue, benefiting from the easing of pandemic curbs and vaccine rollouts.

Another blue-chip company, IBM Corp, is slated to post its results after markets close.

“The market is waiting to see if blowout earnings in banks will continue to other sectors,” said Thomas Hayes, chairman of Great Hill Capital.

“On of the things the market is looking for is increased participation among tech stocks which have lagged in 2021.

A recent pullback in the benchmark 10-year bond yield from 14-month highs has renewed interest in richly valued technology stocks, while a string of strong economic data has also helped push the S&P 500 and the Dow to record levels.

The S&P 500 has risen for the past four weeks, its longest winning streak since August 2020.

About 79 S&P 500 companies are due to report earnings this week including Johnson & Johnson, Netflix Inc, Intel Corp, Honeywell and Schlumberger, according to Refinitiv IBES data.

At 08:29 a.m. EDT, Dow E-minis were down 70 points, or 0.21%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 10.25 points, or 0.25% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 59.25 points, or 0.42%.

Tesla Inc dropped 2.5% after two men died as its electric car, which was believed to be operating without anyone in the driver’s seat, crashed into a tree in Texas. Stock was also under pressure due to a sharp fall in bitcoin over the weekend.

GameStop Corp jumped 8.6% on announcement of its CEO’s resignation.

Crypto stocks including miners Riot Blockchain and Marathon Digital dropped about 7% each as bitcoin took a hammering.

Harley-Davidson jumped 8% after the motorcycle maker raised it full-year forecast for sales growth.

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