By Saumya Vaishampayan And Corrie Driebusch
U.S. stocks were little changed Tuesday after a mixed bag of
earnings reports.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 15 points, or 0.1%, to
18050 and the S&P 500 index rose five points, or 0.2%, to 2105.
The Nasdaq Composite added 27 points, or 0.5%, to 5022.
United Technologies Corp. said its sales fell about 1% in the
first quarter due to the strengthening dollar and a decline in its
Sikorsky aircraft segment. Earnings beat Wall Street expectations,
though revenue fell short. Shares rose 1.4%, making it the biggest
gainer in the Dow.
DuPont Co. said the strengthening U.S. dollar will hurt its
earnings for the year more than it estimated in January, though it
still expects earnings to come in at the low end of its guidance of
$4 to $4.20 a share as it intensifies cost cuts. The company also
reported sales declines across all of its segments. Shares declined
2.3%, making it the worst performer in the Dow.
International Business Machines Corp. on Monday reported a 12%
decrease in revenue, hurt by the stronger U.S. dollar and weakness
in its hardware business. Shares slipped 0.2%.
On Monday, U.S. stocks snapped two straight sessions of
declines. The Dow rose 1.2% to 18034.93 and the S&P added 0.9%
to 2100.40. The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.3% to 4994.60.
Better-than-expected earnings are contributing to the rise in
stock prices. Including results from 77 companies, first-quarter
earnings for S&P 500 companies are on track to fall 4.2% from a
year ago, according to FactSet. Analysts had slashed earnings
estimates leading up to the reporting season, citing concerns about
the strong dollar's drag on earnings at multinational companies and
the hit to energy earnings from low oil prices. About 79% of the
S&P 500 companies that have reported so far have beat those
lowered earnings estimates.
"We don't anticipate any big surprises out of earnings," said
Janet Engels, director of the portfolio advisory group at RBC
Wealth Management.
"We do expect earnings will beat the current expectations, but
that's been the history," she said. "I'm not sure that it is in the
very near term enough to drive the market wildly higher," she
added.
In Europe, France's CAC 40 added 0.6% and Germany's DAX gained
1.2%. Continued concerns about a Greek debt default pushed Greek
yields to fresh multiyear highs and weighed on Greek stocks. Bond
yields rise as prices fall.
The euro fell to $1.0693 from $1.0739 on Monday.
In other corporate news, shares of Mylan NV surged 8.4% after
rival Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. proposed to acquire the
company for about $40 billion in cash and stock, a tie-up that
would create the world's biggest generic drug company by sales.
In commodity markets, gold futures rose 0.2% to $1196.00 an
ounce. Crude-oil futures slipped 0.3% to $57.73 a barrel.
Treasury prices rose, pushing the 10-year yield down to 1.891%
from 1.897% on Monday.
Write to Saumya Vaishampayan at saumya.vaishampayan@wsj.com and
Corrie Driebusch at corrie.driebusch@wsj.com
Access Investor Kit for The Dow Chemical Co.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US2605431038
Access Investor Kit for International Business Machines
Corp.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US4592001014
Access Investor Kit for United Technologies Corp.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US9130171096