Wall St falls on dim earnings forecasts; debt-ceiling talks awaited

(Reuters) – U.S. stock indexes fell on Tuesday, weighed down by a slew of dour earnings forecasts from companies such as Paypal and Apple supplier Skyworks, while investors focused on talks to resolve a debt-ceiling deadlock.

Shares of PayPal (NASDAQ:) Holdings PYPL.O dropped 10.5% and led declines on the benchmark .SPX after the company cut its margin forecast. They were also among the top drags on the index .IXIC.

Skyworks Solutions (NASDAQ:) Inc SWKS.O shares tumbled 6.9% after forecasting current-quarter revenue and earnings below estimates.

Shares of other Apple suppliers including Qualcomm (NASDAQ:) QCOM.O, Broadcom (NASDAQ:) AVGO.O, Qorvo (NASDAQ:) QRVO.O and Corning (NYSE:) GLW.N fell between 0.9% to 2%. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index .SOX was down 1.8%.

Markets are waiting for an update on the debt ceiling from a meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders at the White House later in the day.

Worries of a potential government default loom over Washington as early as June 1, if Congress does not act to resolve the deadlock.

Yields on U.S. short-dated Treasury bills US1MT=RR, US2MT=RR jumped sharply as investors sold off bonds, which mature as early as June. That weighed on shares of high-growth companies, including Apple Inc (NASDAQ:) AAPL.O and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:) MSFT.O, which fell about 0.3% each.

The action-packed week will see the release of the much-awaited inflation data on Wednesday. The Labor Department’s consumer price index (CPI) is expected to climb 0.4% in April after gaining 0.1% in March.

Reports on producer prices, weekly jobless claims and consumer sentiment are all lined up for the week.

“What you’re seeing is a market trying to understand where we are economically, with the Federal Reserve raising interest rates to up to 5% in a very short amount of time,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth.

“It would behove the Fed to pause and see what kind of impact their moves have on the overall economy.”

At 9:45 a.m. ET the .DJI was down 15.53 points, or 0.05%, at 33,603.16, the S&P 500 .SPX was down 15.56 points, or 0.38%, at 4,122.56 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was down 60.23 points, or 0.49%, at 12,196.68.

Boeing (NYSE:) Co BA.N gained 3%, helping take some pressure off the Dow, after budget carrier Ryanair Holdings (NASDAQ:) Plc RYA.I placed a multi-billion dollar order for Boeing jets.

Regional bank shares extended declines, with the KBW Regional Banking index .KRX down 0.7%, after falling 2.8% on Monday. The KBW Banking index lost 1%, extending losses after edging 0.2% lower in the previous session.

Novavax (NASDAQ:) NVAX.O surged 38.4% as the drugmaker plans a 25% cut to its global workforce.

Under Armour Inc (NYSE:) UAA.N lost 4.2% as the sports apparel maker saw its annual sales and profit below street expectations.

Dialysis services provider DaVita (NYSE:) Inc DVA.N jumped 13.1% on raising its annual profit forecast as demand for procedures pickup in the U.S.

Graphic: LPL’s Debt ceiling sell-off graphic: April-Oct 2011 – LPL’s Debt ceiling sell-off graphic: April-Oct 2011

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 2.56-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and for a 2.21-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded six new 52-week highs and 10 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 20 new highs and 54 new lows.