US Markets Retreat On Mixed Earnings

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished at records on Tuesday following a rally fed by a group of strong earnings reports.

The reports out Wednesday were somewhat weaker and came ahead of much-anticipated results from tech giants such as Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft.

"There might have been some hesitancy to take a position ahead" of tech earnings, said Karl Haeling of LBBW. "It seems like a little pause."

Among companies reporting, Caterpillar slumped 3.1 percent, Boeing gained 0.4 percent, AT&T shed 4.1 percent and eBay won 5.1 percent.

Anadarko Petroleum surged 11.6 percent after Occidental Petroleum went public with a proposal to buy the oil company for $76 a share, topping the $65 per share agreed by Anadarko and Chevron earlier this month. Occidental lost 0.6 percent, while Dow-member Chevron fell 3.1 percent.

Goldman Sachs dropped 1.8 percent following a Financial Times report that the US Justice Department was pushing for a guilty plea from the investment bank as part of its criminal probe of Goldman's role in the 1MDB scandal. (AFP)