NEW YORK (AP) — US stocks are barely moving in noon trading Wednesday as investors weigh several earnings reports and await the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last policymaking meeting.
KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 11 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 18,300 as of 12:13 a.m. Eastern time. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index edged down one point to 2,126. The Nasdaq composite rose less than a point to 5,070.
CRAFT CRASH: Etsy plunged 23 percent after its first earnings report as a publicly traded company showed a hefty quarterly loss. Stock in the e-commerce retailer of crafts plunged $4.89 to $16.13.
SUPPLY SLIP: Staples fell 28 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $16.13 after reporting a sharp drop in first-quarter earnings
LOWER LOWE’S: The home-improvement retailer Lowe’s sank 4.5 percent on earnings and revenue that fell short of what analysts were looking for. The stock fell $3.22 to $68.61.
PROFITS PICTURE: With most companies in the S&P 500 out with first- quarter results, earnings per share for companies in the index is now expected to have risen nearly 3 percent from a year ago, according to S&P Capital IQ, a data provider. That is better than the drop that had been predicted in early March, but still low by recent standards.
The weak start to the year has prompted financial analysts to slash forecasts for the full year. At the start of 2015, they were expecting a 7 percent jump in S&P 500 earnings for the year. Now they expect an increase of less than 1 percent.
FED MINUTES: The U.S. Federal Reserve is set to release minutes from its April 28-29 meeting, when it downgraded its view of the U.S. economy and offered no sign that a rate increase might be coming soon. Investors will study the minutes to try to divine the timing of the first rate increase since the global financial crisis.
EUROPEAN MARKETS: France’s CAC 40 rose 0.3 percent and Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.2 percent. Germany’s DAX was flat.
ASIA UP: Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.9 percent and South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.9 percent after robust U.S. housing data boosted the dollar and gave a lift to exporter stocks. China’s Shanghai Composite Index advanced 0.7 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 0.4 percent lower.
ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude gained 79 cents to $58.79per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract plunged $2.25 on Tuesday to close at $57.99.
CURRENCIES: The dollar strengthened to 121.24 yen from 120.67 yen. The euro declined to $1.1087 from $1.1147.
BONDS: The price of U.S. government bonds rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.26 percent from 2.30 percent late Tuesday.
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