US stocks struggled for momentum on Tuesday as gains in the energy and financial sectors helped offset fears that bleak results from aluminium group Alcoa were merely the precursor to a glut of heavy losses during the nascent earnings season.

General Electric was among the hardest-hit blue chips amid the choppy trading, off 5.6 per cent at $14.94 after Barclays forecast that tax benefits could account for as much as $0.20 of an estimated $0.36 earnings per share in the fourth quarter, more than Wall Street expectations.