US Stocks were lower for a third straight day yesterday led lower by the stocks of companies most sensitive to the economy closing down again because of an uptick in COVID cases.

A slew of large US companies reported quarterly earnings, including Dow components 3M and Caterpillar. Caterpillar reported a steep drop in year-over-year earnings and 3M slid 3.1% even after posting stronger-than-expected earnings and revenue.  170 S&P 500 companies have reported third-quarter earnings so far. Of those companies, 83% have posted better-than-expected earnings.

Shares of Microsoft are higher after the company reported fiscal first-quarter results that were better than analysts had expected.  Microsoft revenue grew 12% on an annualized basis. Revenue from Azure their public cloud division grew 48%.
Strong demand and a limited supply of homes have caused home price gains to accelerate dramatically.  Prices beat expectations, rising 5.7% annually in August, up from 4.8% in July, according to the Case-Shiller National Home Price Index.  Phoenix, Seattle and San Diego reported the highest annual gains among the 19 cities.   Chicago, New York City and San Francisco saw the smallest annual home price gains.
 
With Northwest Quadrant Wealth Management, I’m Tyler Simones.