NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / April 20, 2017 / The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index fell Wednesday as investors digested the latest batch of corporate earnings. The Dow declined 0.58 percent to close at 20,404.49, while the S&P 500, which traded in the green for most of the day, fell 0.17 percent to close at 2,338.17. A surge by the tech sector helped pushed the Nasdaq Composite Index up 0.27 percent to close at 5,863.03.

Data from Thomson Reuters shows that out of the 54 S&P 500 companies who have reported earnings through Wednesday morning, 75 percent have surpassed expectations, topping the average of 71 percent over the past 4 quarters. The profit of S&P 500 companies is expected to grow by 10.8 percent in the first quarter of 2017.

RDI Initiates Coverage on:

eBay Inc.
https://ub.rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=EBAY

American Express Company
https://ub.rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=AXP

eBay's shares declined 0.49 percent to close at $33.85 a share on Wednesday. The stock traded between $33.78 and $34.34 on volume of 15.16 million shares traded. The company reported an adjusted net income of $538 million, or $0.49 per share, in the first quarter of 2017, compared to $550 million, or $0.47 per share, a year ago. Revenues were $2.2 billion in the first quarter of 2017, a slight increase from revenues of $2.1 billion a year ago. Analysts' expectations called for adjusted earnings of $0.48 on revenues of $2.1 billion, according to FactSet.

eBay forecasts adjusted earnings to be in the range of $0.43 to $0.45 a share in the second quarter of 2017, short of analysts' expectations of $0.47 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Shares of eBay have gained approximately 14.05 percent year-to-date.

Access RDI's eBay Research Report at:
https://ub.rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=EBAY

American Express' shares declined 0.32 percent to close at $75.55 a share on Wednesday. The stock traded between $75.51 and $76.29 on volume of 5.28 million shares traded. The company reported a net income of $1.2 billion, or $1.34 a share, for the first quarter of 2017, compared with $1.4 billion, or $1.45 a share, in the first quarter of 2016. Sales totaled $7.9 billion for the first quarter of 2017, a decrease of 2 percent when compared to a year ago. Analysts expectation called for earnings of $1.28 a share on sales of $7.8 billion, according to FactSet. Shares of American Express have gained approximately 1.98 percent year-to-date.

Access RDI's American Express Research Report at:
https://ub.rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=AXP

Our Actionable Research on eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) and American Express Company (NYSE: AXP) can be downloaded free of charge at Research Driven Investing.

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