US stocks mixed as Twitter plunges

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(Close): US stocks were mixed on Tuesday after a fall in Apple's shares helped drag the Nasdaq lower.

The tech giant's shares hit $133.89, beating its previous peak of $133, before closing 1.6% lower at $130.56.

The fall helped nudge the tech-heavy Nasdaq into a loss, closing 0.1%, or 4.8 points, lower at 5,055.42.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones closed up 0.4%, or 72.17 points, at 18,110.14, while the S&P 500 jumped 5.84 points, or 0.3%, to 2,114.76.

"Apple's numbers were phenomenal, but yet the stock is down. I think people were expecting a blowout quarter ... so it's kind of a sell-the-news situation," said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities.

Shares in Twitter also weighed on markets, plunging 18.2% after the social media firm's first quarter results were released earlier than expected.

The unexpected announcement, while markets were still trading, gave investors a chance to react to the worse-than-expected sales figures.

Whirlpool was one of the other biggest fallers. Its shares dropped 7.1% to $183.7 after the firm cut its profit forecast for 2015, blaming the strong dollar and Brazil's weak economy.

On the upside, shares in drugs firm Merck rose 5% after it reported better-than-expected results.