Wednesday, October 17, 2012
NEW YORK (AP) — A surprisingly strong housing report helped push the stock market mostly higher today, even as weak earnings reports from Intel and IBM weighed on the Dow Jones industrial average.
The Dow was down 9 points at 13,543 in midday trading, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index gained five points to 1,460.
Even though the two tech giants disappointed, overall earnings results have come in much better than some investors had feared, said Dan Veru, chief investment officer at Palisade Capital Management in Fort Lee, N.J.
"Everyone is breathing a sigh of relief that things aren't all that bad," Veru said. "That's what you see happening now."
Global heavyweights such as FedEx and Caterpillar had warned investors that China's slowing economy and Europe's ongoing debt crisis would weigh on quarterly profits.
The stock market shot higher Tuesday as results from Mattel, Goldman Sachs, and Johnson & Johnson beat expectations. For the week, the Dow is now up 1.6 percent and the S&P 500 is up 2.2 percent.