US stocks fall to begin new month after big rally in July

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• US stocks dropped Tuesday, starting off a new month lower after July's big rally.
• Dow stocks Merck and Caterpillar rose after reporting strong quarterly earnings.

US stocks dropped Tuesday, starting off a new month lower after July's big rally, as fresh earnings reports rolled in and the 10-year Treasury yield topped 4% again.

Last month, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 3.3%. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite rose 4%, and the S&P 500 gained 3.1%, as both notched their fifth consecutive monthly advance.

Dow stocks Merck and Caterpillar rose after reporting quarterly earnings that topped forecasts. But fellow blue chip stock Pfizer was flat on mixed second-quarter results.

Later on Tuesday, the Labor Department will release job openings data, and the Institute for Supply Management will publish its manufacturing activity index.

Here's where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. ET opening bell on Tuesday:

• S&P 500: 4,576.30, down 0.29%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 35,599.34, up 0.11% (39.81 points)
• Nasdaq Composite: 14,253.79, down 0.64%

Here's what else is happening this morning:

• Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel expects stocks to hit fresh highs, and sees only a 30% chance of a recession.
• The SEC charged a crypto entrepreneur with illegally raising over $1 billion and spending client funds on luxury goods, including a billion-year-old diamond.
• It costs traders more than $200,000 a day to ship LNG in the Atlantic basin as the use of ships as floating storage facilities reduces tanker supplies.

In commodities, bonds and crypto:

• West Texas Intermediate crude oil dipped 0.7% to $81.24 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, inched down 0.6% to $84.89.
• Gold slipped 1.2% to $1,984 per ounce.
• The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose six basis points up to 4.017%.
• Bitcoin declined 1.1% to $28,877.40.