NEW YORK - Wall Street’s three major indexes finished lower on July 20 while investors looked for moves toward Middle East de-escalation and waited for earnings reports due from major technology companies later in the week.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq fell less than the S&P 500 and the Dow as the chip sector recovered some of the prior week’s losses and growth sectors such as communications services and technology gained some ground along with the energy stocks.

The second-quarter financial reporting will pick up the pace this week, with results due from big names like Alphabet, Tesla and Intel, broadening the picture the earnings season provides of the health of corporate America after a week of results mostly from the financial sector.

“Everybody is waiting for earnings season to really get going,” said Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel, noting that investors may be “kind of sitting on their hands” ahead of results from sectors such as technology, energy and consumer-facing businesses.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on July 20 that they were imposing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, opening a new front in the US-Israeli war on Iran and widening the threat to global energy supplies and trade beyond the Gulf.

But a senior Iranian official told Reuters that mediators have passed Iran a proposal to de-escalate the war with the US that would offer a 10-day ceasefire to find ways to revive an interim deal reached in June.

After more than a week of bombing in the region, Joe Quinlan, head of CIO market strategy for Merrill and BofA Private Bank, said that investors were anxious for any efforts toward a Middle East resolution that could potentially re-open the Strait of Hormuz and improve oil supplies and prices.

“The hope is if you get some type of resoluti...