Stocks open lower on Wall Street as earnings start to flow

A woman wearing a face mask walks past a bank's electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index in Hong Kong, Tuesday, April 20, 2021. Asian stock markets were mixed Tuesday after Wall Street was pulled lower by tech stock declines. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

A man wearing a face mask walks past a bank's electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index in Hong Kong, Tuesday, April 20, 2021. Asian stock markets were mixed Tuesday after Wall Street was pulled lower by tech stock declines. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

People wearing face masks walk past a bank's electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index in Hong Kong, Tuesday, April 20, 2021. Asian stock markets were mixed Tuesday after Wall Street was pulled lower by tech stock declines. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

People wearing face masks stand in front of a bank's electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index in Hong Kong, Tuesday, April 20, 2021. Asian stock markets were mixed Tuesday after Wall Street was pulled lower by tech stock declines. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

In this photo provided by the New York Stock Exchange, trader Gregory Rowe works on the floor, Monday, April 19, 2021. Stocks were broadly lower in afternoon trading on Monday, easing off of their latest record highs from last week. (Courtney Crow/New York Stock Exchange via AP)

In this Nov. 5, 2020 file photo, a sign for Wall Street is carved in the side of a building. Stocks are easing lower in early trading on Wall Street, pulling major indexes slightly below the record highs they reached last week. The S&P 500 was down 0.2% in the early going Monday, April 19, 2021, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4%. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

In this Nov. 23, 2020 file photo, stone sculptures adorn the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks are easing lower in early trading on Wall Street as investors absorb the latest round of company earnings reports. The S&P 500 was off 0.2% in the first few minutes of trading Tuesday, April 20, 2021, pulling further below the record high it set on Friday. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Stocks were mostly lower in early trading on Tuesday as investors started digesting company earnings reports that are steadily coming out this week.

Ther S&P 500 index was down 0.1% as of 9:55 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.1%.

Investors are in the middle of first-quarter earnings season. Roughly 80 members of the S&P 500 will report their results this week, as well as one out of every three members of the Dow. Wall Street will be looking to see if Corporate America is recovering with the rest of the economy from the coronavirus pandemic.

On average, analysts expect quarterly profits across the S&P 500 to be up 24% from a year earlier, according to FactSet.

United Airlines fell 5% after reporting a loss that was wider than analysts were expecting, and drugmaker Abbott fell after reporting revenue that fell short of forecasts.

Kansas City Southern jumped 15% after another Canadian railway company offered to buy the railroad for $33.7 billion, far higher than a $25 billion offer made by Canadian Pacific last month.

Apple will be in focus as the company makes its latest product announcements later Tuesday. Analysts are not expecting anything blockbuster out of Apple at this event, except for some major refreshes of the company's popular iPad.