Stocks open little changed; S&P 500 at record high

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks were mixed in early trading this morning, keeping the Standard & Poor's 500 index at a record high, as investors assessed the latest earnings from big U.S. companies.

The S&P 500 closed at a record high last week after getting a boost from technology companies, including Microsoft and Amazon. Stocks have surged this year, in part because companies have been able to keep increasing their earnings even as the economy has failed to escape stall speed.

The S&P 500 was up two points, at 1,761 in early trading. The Dow Jones industrial average was flat at 15,570. The Nasdaq composite was up a point at 3,944.

Third-quarter earnings are expected to rise by about 4.5 percent for S&P 500 companies, according to data from S&P Capital IQ. While that is the slowest rate of growth in a year, companies are still beating the estimates of Wall Street analysts. About two thirds of the companies that have published third-quarter earnings so far have exceeded analysts' expectations.