U.S. Stocks Fall as Economic Reports, Europe Overshadow Earnings

U.S. stocks retreated for a second day as disappointing economic data and concern over Europe’s debt crisis overshadowed better-than-forecast earnings from companies including EBay Inc. and Morgan Stanley.

Alcoa Inc. and DuPont Co. slid at least 1.2 percent, as investors sold shares of companies most tied to economic growth. Qualcomm Inc. declined 6.6 percent after projecting sales and profit that fell short of estimates. EBay Inc. rallied 13 percent, the most since 2005, as earnings were helped by growth in its PayPal payments business. Microsoft Corp. rose 2.9 percent after regular trading as it reported third-quarter profit that topped analysts’ estimates.