NEW YORK, Apr 19 – US stocks closed lower on Monday, moving away from last week’s record levels as investors waited for first-quarter earnings guidance to justify high valuations and Tesla stocks. Inc fell after a fatal car accident.

The electric car maker went down after a Tesla vehicle that would have been in autonomous driving mode crashed into a tree north of Houston on Saturday, killing two occupants.

The stock was the biggest drag on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite Index. An 8.4% drop over the weekend for bitcoin, in which Tesla has an investment, also weighed on its price.

The S&P 500 was down overall. Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Nvidia Corp also weighed in on the benchmark, as analysts are waiting for this week’s and next week’s results that make up the bulk of earnings season.

The company outlook should indicate how far the rally can continue from last year’s lows. Analysts expect first-quarter profits to have grown 30.9% compared to a year ago, according to Refinitiv IBES data.

The US economy is poised for a boom as consumers have $ 2 trillion in savings more than they did before the pandemic, said Doug Peta, chief US investment strategist at BCA Research, adding that markets are in pause mode.

“If we do keep going, it would be healthy, suggesting that the rise is sustainable,” Peta said. “Setbacks on the road are healthy.”

Coca-Cola Co rose after the beverage maker beat forecasts for quarterly earnings and revenue, benefiting from loosening of restrictions due to the pandemic and extensive vaccination.

“The market has taken a big leap up, so it needs to get some rest,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.

“Right now it’s just a bit of profit-taking as traders await the results of the big tech names on Wall Street.”

Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.35% to end at 34,082.44 points, while the S&P 500 lost 0.52% to 4,163.64 points. The Nasdaq Composite was down 0.98% to 13,914.77 points.

(Additional reporting by Shivani Kumaresan and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Edited in Spanish by Javier López de Lérida)

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