MARKETS RIGHT NOW | Stocks edge lower in early trading

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are opening slightly lower on Wall Street as a thin batch of earnings gave investors little to get excited about.

Tax preparation company H&R Block dropped almost 8 percent in early trading Wednesday after reporting revenue that fell short of analysts’ estimates, and distiller Brown-Forman, which makes Jack Daniels and Woodford Reserve, fell 5 percent after its own results also came up short of forecasts.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 41 points, or 0.2 percent, to 18,412.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 4 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,171. The Nasdaq composite fell 12 points, or 0.3 percent, to 5,210.

Bond prices didn’t move much. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note held steady at 1.57 percent.