Uneven Earnings Weigh on U.S. Stocks

He noted that futures were today pricing in a 16% chance that the Fed won't cut rates at all, which he commented would be a long-term positive indicator, even if stocks react negatively in the short run. The probability of a quarter-point easing stood at 84%, leaving no room for a steeper cut.

As for earnings, after the prior close the newly public Visa (V Quote) said first-quarter income jumped 27.6% on a spike in revenue, which on an adjusted basis topped the average Wall Street estimate. Despite this, as well as positive initial ratings from SunTrust and Wachovia, investors took down shares by 1.5%.

Rival MasterCard (MA Quote), on the other hand, jumped 9.7% after demolishing analyst targets with an adjusted first-quarter profit of $3.01 a share.

Meanwhile, Dow component Merck (MRK Quote) slid 10.4% after the Food and Drug Administration rejected its new cholesterol drug, MK-0524A, which was proposed to raise levels of "good" cholesterol in the body.

On the economic docket, the Conference Board reported that its April consumer-confidence index sank to 62.3, a bit better than expected, from the prior month's revised reading of 65.9.

Also, the February S&P/Case-Shiller survey revealed that its 10-city composite -- a compiling of housing data from 10 major U.S. cities -- showed a "record" year-over-year slide of 13.6% in prices of existing single-family homes. The 20-city composite sank 12.7% as 17 of those cities registered all-time lows in their declines from last year.

RealtyTrac added more sour data to the pile, saying that first-quarter foreclosures rocketed 112% from last year to 649,917, or one in every 194 U.S. households. The number also represents a 23% jump from the prior quarter.