Stocks Closed Lower, Posted Monthly Gains

U.S. stocks closed lower on Tuesday, but finished January higher amid disappointing earnings and lingering concern over the priorities of the Trump administration. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 107.04 points, or 0.54%, to 19,864.09. The S&P 500 lost 2.03 points, or 0.09%, to 2,278.87. The Nasdaq Composite added 1.07 points, or 0.02%, to 5,614.79. For January, the Dow closed up 0.5%, the S&P 500 posted gain of 1.8% and the Nasdaq gained 4.3%.

Sitting in a room full of pharmaceutical executives, President Donald Trump vowed major changes to bring down drug pricing. But as evidence of the U.S. drug-pricing system’s flaws, the president mentioned just one medication explicitly on Tuesday: aspirin, the widely available generic medication that costs less than a penny per pill.

Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE:HOG) fourth quarter 2016 diluted EPS increased 22.7 percent to $0.27 compared to $0.22 in the same period of 2015. In the fourth quarter of 2016, net income was $47.2 million on consolidated revenue of $1.11 billion versus net income of $42.2 million on consolidated revenue of $1.18 billion in the year-ago period. Full-year 2016 diluted EPS increased 3.8 percent to $3.83 compared to diluted EPS of $3.69 in 2015. Full-year net income was $692.2 million on consolidated revenue of $6.0 billion versus net income of $752.2 million on consolidated revenue of $6.0 billion a year ago.