Stocks Close Flat; Market Digests Earnings
NEW YORK (
) -- Stocks finished mixed Wednesday after straying around the flat line for much of the day, as investors weighed promising earnings reports against lingering macroeconomic concerns.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
improved 8 points, or 0.1%, at 11,125. The
S&P 500
lost 1 point, or 0.1%, at 1206, while the
Nasdaq
went ahead by 4 points, or 0.2%, at 2505.
Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors, said the market is reacting to a combination of earnings and lingering concerns.
"The corporate earnings season has been terrific.
last night were really jaw-dropping and
report was pretty strong. Overall, I'd go so far as to say that earnings have been better than expected," Orlando said. "On the flip side, the negative side, there are residual concerns about
Goldman Sachs
(GS) - Get Report
and ongoing concerns about what's happening with Greece. These elements are all coming together."
Overseas, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.5% while Japan's Nikkei gained 1.7%. The FTSE in London lost 1%, and the DAX in Frankfurt shed 0.5%.
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The Economy
The Energy Information Administration reported a build of 1.9 million barrels to crude oil inventories in the week ended April 16, which was larger than the 300,000-barrel increase that analysts polled by Platts had been expecting. It also went against the surprise decline of 741,000 barrels reported by the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday.
The EIA said gasoline stockpiles gained 3.6 million barrels, which surpassed estimates for a build of 100,000 barrels distillates supplies were rose by 2.1 million barrels, while analysts had only expected an additional 840,000 barrels.
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The Mortgage Bankers Association said earlier that mortgage-application loan volumes rose by a seasonally adjusted 13.6% last week. Refinancing applications grew 15.8% week over week and purchase activity increased 10.1%.
The Senate Agricultural Committee voted in favor of legislation that would curb the abilities of derivatives trading desks at major Wall Street firms and provide greater transparency on the products,
The Associated Press
reported. The panel's 13-8 vote in favor of the measure also garnered lone Republican support from Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa).
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Company News
After the closing bell,
Starbucks
(SBUX) - Get Report
beat second-quarter top and bottom-line forecasts on improving same store sales, while also guiding higher for the year.
In late afternoon tech earnings news,
Qualcomm
(QCOM) - Get Report
said it
swung to a profit on improving revenue, while
eBay
(EBAY) - Get Report
said it earned a slightly better-than-expected 42 cents a share. But each company offered underwhelming outlooks, which was driving a sell-off in shares for both in extended-hours trading.
Boeing
(BA) - Get Report
and
United Technologies
undefined
topped the Dow after both companies reported strong first-quarter earnings. Their shares traded 3.9% and 3.7% higher, respectively.
AT&T
(T) - Get Report
was one of the Dow's biggest laggards after
Merck
(MRK) - Get Report
,
Bank of America
(BAC) - Get Report
and
Intel
(INTC) - Get Report
despite news that AT&T added 1.9 million new wireless subscribers in the first quarter.
Morgan Stanley
(MS) - Get Report
shares gained 4% after reporting first-quarter earnings that topped estimates.
McDonald's
(MCD) - Get Report
posted a first-quarter profit of $1 a share, which included a currency benefit of 5 cents a share. Analysts had been looking for earnings of 96 cents a share.
Shares of
Wells Fargo
(WFC) - Get Report
lost 2% after the company reported first-quarter earnings of 45 cents a share and revenue that rose 2% to $21.4 billion.
Shares of
AirTran Holdings
(AAI)
fell 8.5% after the company reported an adjusted quarterly loss that was a penny narrower than Wall Street had been expecting.
Stronger copper prices helped
Freeport McMoRan
(FCX) - Get Report
top Wall Street estimates with first-quarter earnings of $2 a share. Its stock, however, lost 3% to close at $78.41.
Altria Group
(MO) - Get Report
expects the business climate to remain challenging but reaffirmed its full-year guidance for earnings of $1.85 to $1.89 a share. The company reported an adjusted quarterly profit of 42 cents a share, which was better than the profit of 39 cents a share that analysts had been projecting.
Lockheed Martin
(LMT) - Get Report
said earnings fell 18% but still beat expectations. The stock improved $1.28, or 1.5%, to $86.25.
Visa
(V) - Get Report
announced plans to buy online securities provider
CyberSource
(CYBS)
for roughly $2 billion.
Both
Apple
(AAPL) - Get Report
and
Yahoo!
(YHOO)
reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings after the close of trading on Tuesday. Apple shares surged 6% while Yahoo! shares shed 5.1%.
General Motors
CEO Ed Whitacre said the car manufacturer has paid back its over $8 billion in loans provided by governments in North America.
Goldman Sachs
(GS) - Get Report
CEO Lloyd Blankfein will face the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations next Tuesday,
The Associated Press
reported, where he is likely to answer questions concerning the
Securities and Exchange Commission's
fraud charges against the firm.
Bruce Karatz, the former CEO of homebuilder
KB Home
(KBH) - Get Report
, was found guilty on a handful of felony charges related to a stock backdating scandal.
The International Air Transport Association said the
airline industry lost more than $1.7 billion on account of the volcano disruptions.
Salesforce.com
(CRM) - Get Report
said it will buy online business directory company Jigsaw. Its stock added 60 cents, or 0.7%, to close at $85.08.
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Commodities and the Dollar
Following the government's inventory report, the June delivery crude
oil contract finished 17 cents lower, settling at $83.68 a barrel.
Elsewhere in commodity markets, the June gold contract added $9.60 to settle at $1,148.80 an ounce.
The dollar was trading higher against a basket of currencies, with the
dollar index up by 0.2%.
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Treasuries
The benchmark 10-year Treasury strengthened 13/32, diluting the yield to 3.747%.
The two-year note held improve 1/32, weakening the yield at 1.004%. The 30-year bond rose 28/32, dropping the yield to 4.618%.
--Written by Melinda Peer and Sung Moss in New York
.
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