While you were sleeping: UPDATED US stocks fall as earnings disappoint

Stocks on both sides of the Atlantic slid amid disappointing results from companies including 3M and Caterpillar.

Also, hurting sentiment was a report showing US consumer confidence weakened more than expected. And oil fell.

"We've had some mixed earnings and the market right now is digesting earnings and positioning itself ahead of the Fed[eral Reserve] meeting next week," Florida-based US Bank managing director for investments Jeff Zipper told Reuters.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 53.76 points, or 0.3%, to 18,169.27. The Nasdaq Composite Index slid 0.5% to 5283.40 while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 0.4% to 2143.16.

The Dow moved lower as 3M and Home Depot shares dropped, down 2.9% and 2.8% respectively, outweighed gains Procter & Gamble and United Technologies shares, up 4.1 % and 2.4 % higher respectively.

3M lowered its outlook for 2016 sales and earnings.

Caterpillar shares slide
Shares of Caterpillar slid, down 2.2% after the world's No. 1 maker of mining and construction equipment, downgraded its full-year sales and profit outlook because of a "challenging environment."

The company now expects sales of $US39 billion, down from a previous estimate for between $US40-40.5 billion, it says. Caterpillar expects 2017 sales and revenues "will not be significantly different than 2016.

"While we are seeing early signals of improvement in some areas, we continue to face a number of challenges," chief executive Doug Oberhelman says.

Shares of Whirlpool sank 11% after the company downgraded its full-year profit outlook.

Apple edged higher ahead of the release of its fourth-quarter results after the closing bell. While the iPhone maker is forecast to report lower annual sales, the decline may prove less than some analysts have been expecting in part because of rival Samsung's recent struggles.

"We're getting some good earnings, but it's still been a fairly mixed picture," New York-based Miller Tabak & Co equity strategist Matt Maley told Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, a Conference Board report shows its index of consumer confidence dropped to 98.6 in October from 103.5 in September.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index finished the session with a 0.4% drop from the previous close amid disappointing results from drugmaker Novartis. Germany's DAX Index inched 0.04% lower, while France's CAC 40 Index fell 0.3%.

Bucking the trend, the UK's FTSE 100 Index rose 0.5%.

(BusinessDesk)