U.S. stocks are falling amid mixed earnings; First Republic shares sink

Investing.com -- U.S. stocks were under pressure amid mixed earnings and a new set of concerns about the banking sector after First Republic reported a sharp drop in first quarter deposits.

At 11:02 ET (15:02 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 64 points or 0.2%, while the S&P 500 was down 0.7% and NASDAQ Composite was down 0.8%.

First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) shares fell more than 27% early Tuesday after it said customers removed $100 billion of deposits in the quarter as turmoil hit the sector and two U.S. lenders collapsed. 

March was particularly turbulent for banking companies as customers moved money from regular deposit accounts at regional banks to accounts at bigger banks and into money market funds, seeking yield.

Shares of food giant McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) dipped 0.5% after it beat expectations for comparable sales and profit, lifted by menu price increases. PepsiCo Inc (NASDAQ:PEP) raised its forecast for revenue this year, lifting shares 2.4%. General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) shares were down 1% after it raised the lower end of its profit outlook for the full year.

This week, some 178 companies in the S&P 500 are slated to report their results. Analysts see the S&P group overall reporting a drop of just under 5% in profit.

Later today, investors will hear from Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) amid a turbulent time in the technology sector as well. Many will be listening for an update on their artificial intelligence initiatives.

Next week, the Federal Reserve will meet to decide its next move on interest rates, with expectations that it will raise them by another quarter of a percentage point and then pause at their next meeting in June.

Oil was falling. Crude Oil WTI was down 2.4% to $76.83 a barrel, while Brent Oil Futures fell 2.5% to $80.47 a barrel. Gold Futures were down 0.2% at $1,996.