US open: Stocks for choppy session as investors await raft of earnings

LONDON (ShareCast) - US stock fluctuated early on Wednesday, as investors digested another raft of earnings and awaited more corporate reports at the end of the session. Just before 15:00 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 35 points, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq declined two and seven points respectively.

US stocks were mixed on Tuesday, largely unable to maintain Monday's gains as investors digested a plethora of earnings reports.

"Since the tech sector has become such a dominant source of profit growth, the next few days which include earnings from Facebook , Google , Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) and Twitter (Xetra: A1W6XZ - news) are an especially sensitive part of the earnings season," said Jasper Lawler, analyst at CMC Markets. On Wednesday, investors will closely monitor corporate earnings from a host of Wall Street's heavyweights, with AT&T (Swiss: T.SW - news) , eBay and Facebook (NasdaqGS: FB - news) set to report after the close.

"Facebook is expected to post a jump in its year-on-year Q1 figures of 67% to $1.79bn, once again setting the standard for social media companies when it comes to monetising their user base," said IG (LSE: IGG.L - news) 's market analyst Alastair McCaig.

McDonald's rose 2.99%, despite the burgers-and-milkshakes chain reporting "negative guest traffic in all major segments" during the first quarter.

Boeing (NYSE: BA - news) slid 0.87% after reporting before the bell that its first quarter revenue climbed from a year ago but missed expectations, while earnings rose to $1.97 per share from $1.76 a year ago, better than the $1.81 predicted by the market.

Coca-Cola climbed 1.10%on the back of a slight increase in first quarter revenue, which rose1% to $10.7bn, while gross profit climbed 2% to $6.6bn. However, income before taxes declined by 10% to $1.56bn.

Yahoo (NasdaqGS: YHOO - news) ! declined 0.3% after reporting late on Tuesday that its first quarter earnings had missed estimates.

Harley Davidson rose 0.3% after closing the previous session down 9.8% on news that it had slashed its shipment outlook for the year.

Sports apparel retailer Under Armour (Xetra: U9R.DE - news) gained 0.06% despite posting a wider-than-expected drop in sales on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, applications for US home mortgages grew last week, data released on Wednesday showed.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of application activity, which covers home purchase demand and refinancing demand, climbed 2.3% in the week ended 17 April.

Elsewhere, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 1.13% above 20,000 for the first time in 15 years, driven by a jump in trade balance to ¥229.3bn (£1.3bn) in March from a decline of ¥424.6bn the month before.

The dollar slid 0.7% against the pound but was stable against the yen and the euro, while gold futures slid 0.54% to $1,196.60.

Oil prices rose slightly, with West Texas Intermediate gaining 0.14% to $56.59 a barrel, while Brent crude climbed 0.92% to $62.66 a barrel.