Earnings News: Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA), Twenty First Century Fox Inc (FOXA) [VIDEO]

U.S. stocks closed lower on Tuesday as investors continued to weigh a series of corporate earnings and mixed global economic data.

After the bell, Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) topped Wall Street expectations as the company reported it had narrowed its net loss during the fiscal third-quarter to $38.5 million, or 32 cents a share, from a loss of $110.8 million, or $1.05 cents, a year ago. But shares still tumbled by more than 10 percent in after-hours trading.

Excluding items, the company posted earnings of 12 cents per share on revenue of $603 million, compared with a loss of 92 cents a share on revenue of $50 million a year earlier. Wall Street had expected the company to report earnings excluding items of 11 cents a share on revenue of $535 million, according to analysts polled by Reuters.

Despite finishing the third-quarter with a record of slightly over 5,500 Model S deliveries, that number still came in below analysts’ expectations.

“We are now producing 550 cars per week with improved process controls which consistently result in high quality cars,” said Chairman & CEO Elon Musk in the company’s fiscal third-quarter earnings statement. “Consequently, we finished the quarter with a record of slightly over 5,500 deliveries, including over 1,000 deliveries to European customers. Production in the quarter significantly exceeded deliveries in order to fill the pipeline of vehicles in transit to Europe and provide cars for service and marketing uses.”

Meanwhile, the electric-car maker’s fourth-quarter guidance fell short of Wall Street estimates.

“We are continuing to expand production and plan to deliver slightly under 6,000 Model S vehicles in Q4, which increases our total expected deliveries to 21,500 vehicles worldwide for 2013," Musk added.

On Tuesday, shares of Tesla Motors plunged 12.18 percent to $155.27 in extended-hours trading.

Also on Tuesday, Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc. (NASDAQ:FOXA) posted a 44 percent drop in fiscal first-quarter profit as earnings came in at $1.26 billion, or 54 cents a share, compared with a profit of $2.23 billion, or 94 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

Excluding one-time items, the media-and-entertainment company reported earnings of 33 cents a share, below Wall Street estimates for 35 cents a share. However, revenue soared 17.6 percent to $7.06 billion, compared with analysts’ expectations of $6.8 billion.

“In our first quarter as 21st Century Fox, we delivered strong revenue increases across all of our businesses as well as growth in OIBDA even as we made significant investment in our channels business, and faced a difficult film comparison and currency headwinds,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rupert Murdoch in the company’s fiscal first-quarter earnings statement. “The investment we are making, including the launch of FXX and Fox Sports 1, will drive future sustained growth toward our stated 2016 target of $9 billion of OIBDA and beyond."

In June, 21st Century Fox split from News Corp. into independent, publicly traded companies. Fox retained the media and entertainment businesses and the new News Corp. got the publishing, digital education and Australian media businesses.

Shares of 21st Century Fox fell 1.73 percent to $33.50 in after-hours trading.

Ahead on the earnings calendar for Wednesday, notable companies reporting quarterly earnings include Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX), CBS Corp. (NYSE:CBS), Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), Mondelez International Inc. (NASDAQ:MDLZ) and Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDAQ:WFM).

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 20.90 points, or 0.13 percent, to close at 15,618.22. The S&P 500 was down 4.96 points, or 0.28 percent, to end at 1,762.97. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 3.27 points, or 0.08 percent, to finish at 3,939.86.