Another day of wait-and-see for more Q2 even though Q2 so far has been very positive, earnings now expected to have grown 8.8 percent, up from 8 percent earlier in July.  Tech continues to lead the day with the Nasdaq up 23 but the Dow down 66 due to difficulties at J&J.  The next event on the horizon is Wednesday’s new Fed statement and continuing wait-and-see with volume still well below average at 5.5 billion.

mon JULY 24, 2017 / 5:38 pm

Nasdaq, tech shine as earnings pick up; Dow, S&P lag

Lewis Krauskopf

DJ: 21,513.17  -66.90     NAS: 6,410.81  +23.05      S&P: 2,469.91  -2.63        7/24

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Nasdaq hit a record high on Monday ahead of a big week of technology earnings reports, while the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials lagged behind as losses in healthcare heavyweight Johnson & Johnson took a toll.  The major U.S. indexes are trading around record-high levels with a huge batch of second-quarter corporate reports due this week.

After the market closed, shares of Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O), one of the high-flying "FANG" stocks, traded down 2.2 percent following the company's quarterly report and dragged on Nasdaq 100 futures NQc1.  The company's report will be critical for supporting the run for the tech .SPLRCT sector, which has outperformed all major groups this year.  "The tech sector is the leading sector so far this year,"said John Augustine, chief investment officer at Huntington Bank in Columbus, Ohio. “It’s going to be important that those FANG stocks set a positive tone and give positive guidance."  Of the other FANG stocks, Netflix (NFLX.O) issued well-received results last week, and Amazon (AMZN.O) and Facebook (FB.O) are set to report later this week. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 66.9 points, or 0.31 percent, to 21,513.17, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 2.63 points, or 0.11 percent, to 2,469.91 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 23.05 points, or 0.36 percent, to 6,410.81.  Tech and financials .SPSY were the only two of the 11 major S&P sectors to finish in positive territory.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) shares ended down 1.7 percent, the biggest weight on the S&P 500 and the Dow. J&J faces discounted competition to its big-selling rheumatoid arthritis drug.  The market's run to record highs, including a 10.4 percent rise for the S&P 500 in 2017, has left equities relatively expensive and investors counting on earnings to justify the valuations. The S&P 500 is trading at around 17.7 times earnings estimates for the next 12 months, well above their long-term average of 15 times. 

With more than one-fifth of the S&P 500 having reported results, earnings are now expected to have climbed 8.8 percent in the second quarter, up from a projection of an 8-percent rise at the start of the month, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.  This week alone, 190 S&P 500 companies are expected to report quarterly results.

“There is a lot of earnings coming out this week, so some people may just be sitting on the sidelines with a wait-and-see approach," said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “There’s a lot of anticipation about this earnings season.”

In other earnings news, Halliburton (HAL.N) shares fell 4.2 percent after the oilfield services provider warned about flattening growth in North American rig count.  Hasbro (HAS.O) shares slumped 9.4 percent after the toymaker's quarterly results.  Hibbett Sports (HIBB.O) tumbled 33.5 percent after the sporting goods retailer's second-quarter sales warnings. The stock weighed on other sports retailers such as Dick's Sporting (DKS.N), Foot Locker (FL.N) and Finish Line (FINL.O). 

Investors are also looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's post-meeting statement due on Wednesday for clues about the future path of interest rate hikes.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.27-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.17-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

About 5.5 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, below the 6.1 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.