Stocks slip on weak Wall St earnings

MANILA, Philippines - The bellwether stock index slipped for the second straight session yesterday as investors took the lead from disappointing earnings in Wall St. while some stayed on the sidelines ahead of US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke’s policy speech before Congress.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEI) dropped 0.13 percent or 8.83 points to 6,574.72, paring earlier losses that pushed the main index to an intraday low at 6,514.10.

“The battle between the bears and the bulls turned in favor of the former as another round of not-so-encouraging numbers from the US corporate front pulled on sentiments,” said Justino Calaycay Jr., an analyst at Accord Capital Equities Corp.

“Adding to the slight return to pessimism was another Fed official voicing the need to cut back on the stimulus program ahead of Bernanke’s semi-annual monetary policy report to Congress later this week,” he added.

Wall St. which is in the thick of the earnings season, retreated Tuesday on the back of lower-than-expected second quarter income companies like Coca-Cola.

The Dow Jones industrial average shed 0.2 percent or 32.41 points to close at 15,451.85 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index slipped 0.4 percent or 6.24 points to 1,676.26, snapping an eight-day climb.

Local stocks bucked the climb in Asian stocks. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.11 percent or 15.92 points to 14,615.04, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index inched up 0.28 percent or 59.49 points to 21,371.87.