Wall Street mostly red in early trading

The main Wall Street indices were decidedly mixed to negative in early trading on Tuesday morning, with US retail sales data greeted with a shrug by traders. In the first minutes of trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1% at 29,658, while the S&P 500 fell 0.63% to 3,604. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, was mostly flat at around 11,921. Investors in New York appeared little moved by US retail sales data for October, which came in as expected with a 0.3% rise over the month. One winner on Tuesday morning was electric car maker Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), which jumped 11% to US$453 in early deals after the stock joined the S&P 500 index. At the losing end, pharmacy chains Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) and CVS Health Corp (NYSE:CVS) dropped 8% to US$40.55 and 3.7% to US$68.38 following news that e-commerce giant Amazon Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) has muscled its way into the sector with the launch of its own online pharmacy service. 7.35am: Wall Street to start mostly lower at the opening bell US investors are set for a pause for breath when trading starts later today. Spread betting quotes indicate the Dow Jones Industrial Average will open at around 29,786, 14 points down on last night’s close. The S&P 500 is expected to kick-off at around 3,609, down 18 points, but the NASDAQ Composite is tipped to go its own way and open 117 points firmer at 12,041. “Tesla will be in play today as it was announced that the electric vehicle manufacturer will be admitted to the S&P 500 index in late December. This has been in the offing for some time now, but the confirmation should push up demand seeing as index trackers will need to buy it for their funds,” explained CMC’s David Madden. Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) was up more than 13% in pre-market trading. Meanwhile, Neil Wilson of markets.com reports that Airbnb announced plans to press on with its stock market listing this year despite the obvious hit to the travel sector from the pandemic. “In a filing on Monday the company reported it had made a profit of $219 million in the third quarter, on $1.34 billion in revenue. This was down on a small amount from the $227 million in profit during the same quarter last year – its only profitable quarter in 2019 – which was on $1.65 billion in revenue; however the first half of the year was exceptionally tough for Airbnb as it chalked up net losses of $916 million on revenue of $1.18 billion,” Wilson said. Five things to watch for on Tuesday: There are a few big names on the earnings calendar on Tuesday, with retailer giant Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) due to report its figures for the third quarter Also in the diary is DIY products retailer Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD), which is scheduled to post results for its third quarter On the macroeconomic front, US retail sales for October are expected to rise 0.5% month-on-month after climbing 1.9% in September US industrial production, meanwhile, is tipped to be up 1.0% or so month-on-month, which would be the largest rise in three months Economists will also be keeping an eye out for the NAHB housing market index for November, which is expected to remain unchanged from October’s 85