Stocks closed lower yesterday with all of the indexes in the red. After a muted open, the indexes continued to lose ground as the morning wore on, but came off their lows in the afternoon.

Early morning earnings announcements from Amphenol (positive EPS surprise of 17.7%), Boston Scientific (positive EPS surprise of 5.63%), and Thermo Fisher Scientific (positive EPS surprise of 5.27%), were not enough to buoy the market. (Although, those stocks each benefitted from their better-than-expected results, climbing 3.61%, 3.95% and 1.65% respectively.)

After the close we heard from Tesla, which posted a negative EPS surprise of -5.66%, and a positive sales surprise of 6.21%. That translated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of -30.6% vs. this time last year, and a sales growth of 11.6%. Higher tariffs, and lower regulatory emission credits contributed to the lower earnings. You'll recall that Elon Musk said on last quarter's Q2 earnings call that "we probably could have a few rough quarters." So it should come as no surprise that we saw that show up this quarter. They were off -0.82% in the regular session before earnings, and were off by roughly -3% in after-hours trade following earnings.

IBM reported after the close as well and posted a positive EPS surprise of 8.61%, and a positive sales surprise of 1.43%. That equated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of 15.2%, and a sales growth of 9.08%. They were up 1.94% in the regular session, but were trading lower by roughly -5.5% in after-hours.

Today we'll hear from another 188 companies in queue to report, including Honeywell, Union Pacific, and The Blackstone Group before the open, and Intel, Newmont, and Southwest Airlines after the close.

And we'll hear from Alcoa after-the-close as well. (I mention them because Alcoa has long been considered the 'official' start to earnings season, because once upon a time they were the first Dow component to report earnings. Ironically, they are no longer part of the Dow Jones Index. But after being the official kick-off for so long, that tradition stuck.)

In other news, yesterday's MBA Mortgage Applications were off -0.3% w/w, with purchases off -5.2%, and refi's up 4.0%.

And the Atlanta Fed Business Inflation Expectations was unchanged from last month at 2.3% y/y.

Today we were supposed to get Weekly Jobless Claims, but that report is expected to be delayed due to the government shutdown. But we will get the Chicago Fed National Activity Index, Existing Home Sales, and the Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Index.

We'll see if the markets can regroup today.

Interestingly, yesterday's pullback actually prettied up the technical picture for the indexes by filling in a gap left on the charts from Monday's higher open. As the adage goes, "all gaps are eventually filled." (At least common gaps.) While that's not always true, it's true enough to be a saying. And closing that gap improves the technicals.

See you tomorrow,