Wall Street opens mostly higher as earnings reports roll in

NEW YORK — Stocks are off to a mostly higher start on Wall Street as traders take in a big round of earnings reports from big U.S. companies. General Motors was up after delivering solid results, while packaging maker Crown Holdings fell sharply after its latest earnings fell short of estimates. The S&P 500 was up 0.3% in the early going Tuesday while the Dow was little changed. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.7%. Treasury yields continued to pull back from their multiyear highs. Crude oil prices rose slightly and European markets were mixed and Asian markets closed mixed overnight.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

Wall Street declined before the opening bell despite strong earnings from some major U.S. corporations Tuesday.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrials fell 0.4% and futures for the S&P 500 slipped 0.3%.

General Motors jumped 4.4% after the automaker reported third-quarter net profit rose 36.7% as vehicle sales rebound from global parts supply chain troubles. Vehicle sales in the U.S. jumped 24%.

Coca-Cola shares climbed nearly 3% after the beverage giant booked stronger-than-expected sales in the third quarter as it hiked prices. It also raised its revenue expectations for the year.

Google’s parent company, along with Facebook’s parent, Amazon and Apple are all reporting their latest financial results this week. They are among the priciest stocks in the benchmark S&P 500 and their earnings this week could mean big moves, up or down, for the broader market.

Investors are looking for indications of inflation’s impact on various industries. Prices on everything from clothing to food remain at their highest levels in four decades, putting pressure on companies to raise prices and cut costs, while squeezing consumers.

The Federal Reserve and central banks around the world have been raising interest rates to tame inflation and those increases have been weighing on pricier stocks, like technology companies, by making less-risky bonds seem more attractive in a volatile stock market.

The Fed is expected to raise interest rates another three-quarters of a percentage point at its upcoming meeting in November.

Economists and investors worry central banks could go too far in slowing economic activity, triggering a recession. They’re looking for any sign they might ease up on rate increases. The U.S. economy has already slowed, contracting during the first half the year.

A report on U.S. consumer confidence is due early Tuesday. The U.S. government will release its third-quarter gross domestic product report on Thursday.

In Europe at midday, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.6% as Britain’s third prime minister this year, Rishi Sunak, prepared to take office and appoint a Cabinet to grapple with the U.K.’s economic and political crises.

Germany’s DAX fell 0.8% following the release of a German Business Climate report that was better than expected but overall gloomy. The CAC in Paris rose 0.4%.

In Asia, markets remained jittery over the outcome of a Communist Party congress in China, where key reformers were excluded from the highest ranks of ruling party leadership. Hong Kong’s benchmark edged 0.1% lower, to 15,165.59, failing to hold onto early gains after a 6.4% selloff the day before. The Shanghai Composite index fell less than 0.1%, to 2,976.28.

Chinese stocks have languished after the Communist Party congress awarded leader Xi Jinping an unprecedented third five-year term and installed key Xi allies as top ruling party leaders, vanquishing officials considered pro-market reformers.

Xi wants a bigger Communist Party role in China’s business and technology development, raising fears centralized control will stunt an economy that already is slowing.

But that might not mean major policy changes, said Iris Pang of ING.

That’s because “most, if not all, existing policy decisions has been agreed with Xi. This applies to potential changes in the central bank governor, banking regulator and economic adviser.”

The Chinese yuan slid to a 15-year low of 7.3089 to the U.S. dollar after China’s central bank appeared to ease off trying to counter market forces that were pushing the tightly controlled currency lower. The yuan has declined as U.S. interest rate hikes encouraged banks and other traders to convert money to dollars in search of higher returns.

In September, Chinese commercial banks were instructed by the People’s Bank of China to keep the exchange rate stable and not to bet on the yuan weakening. But after the ruling party’s congress ended over the weekend, the central bank set the yuan’s starting price for trading Tuesday unusually low.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index rose 1% to 27,250.28, while the Kospi in Seoul lost 0.1%, to 2,235.07. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.3% to 6,798.60. India’s Sensex slipped 0.5%, while Taiwan’s benchmark lost 1.5%.

In other trading, the dollar fell to 148.91 Japanese yen from 148.94 yen. The euro fell to 98.64 cents from 98.75 cents.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell $1.25 to $83.33 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international pricing standard, shed $1.19 to $90.02 per barrel.

On Wall Street on Monday, stocks extended gains from last week as investors geared up for a heavy week of earnings from big technology companies.

The S&P 500 rose 1.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 1.3% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite closed 0.9% higher. The Russell 2000 index climbed 0.4%.

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Kurtenbach reported from Bangkok; Ott reported from Washington. AP Business Writer Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed.