NEW YORK - The stock market finished pretty much where it started Wednesday as a mixed bag of earnings from big-name American companies left investors uninspired.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index, the market’s most widely used barometer, ended up, but just barely: 0.01 point.
The Dow Jones industrial average edged down 43.16 points, held back by big drops in Procter & Gamble and AT&T. P&G issued a weak quarterly profit forecast and AT&T lost subscribers from its contract-based plans for the first time.
Investors are taking their cue from a heavy dose of earnings this week.
Procter & Gamble shares fell after its profit forecast came in below what financial analysts were expecting. The company reported uneven demand for its new products.
AT&T dropped $1.96, or 5.2 percent, to $37.04 after it lost phone subscribers from its contract-based plans in its latest quarter. It’s a sign that industry growth is slowing now that most Americans have smart phones.
Investors were also disappointed by sales growth at biotech giant Amgen and flat revenue at drugmaker Eli Lilly, though companies such as Boeing and General Dynamics tempered the mood with strong quarterly profits.
So far, 175 of the companies in the S&P 500, or 35 percent, have reported quarterly earnings. Two-thirds of the Dow’s members have reported.
While the majority of them have delivered better-than expected profits, their sales haven’t been as strong, suggesting they are struggling to grow.
Sixty-nine percent of companies in the S&P 500 have beaten earnings expectations,better than the 10-year average of 62 percent, according to S&P Capital IQ. However, only 39 percent have beaten revenue forecasts.
Looking ahead, the outlook dims. Of the 35 companies that have given earnings forecasts for the second quarter, 28 are “negative,” according to S&P Capital IQ , with only four “positive” and three “in-line.”
“We think that most managements are appropriately cautious in their outlooks, because it’s very possible that the second-quarter will continue to slow,” said Jim Russell, a regional investment director at US Bank. “We’re watching with cautious optimism that this is a second-quarter-only soft patch in the economic data.”
The Dow closed down 43.16 points at 14,676.30, or 0.3 percent. The S&P 500 index was barely changed at 1,578.79. The Nasdaq composite edged up 0.32 point at 3,269.55. The Russell 2000 index of small company stocks fared better. It rose 0.5 percent, or 4.75 points, to 934.11.
Nearly two stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume was average at 3.5 billion shares.
Last week, stocks logged their biggest weekly drop in five months after growth in China, the world’s second biggest economy, slowed and commodity prices plunged. Weaker hiring and manufacturing growth in the U.S. have also weighed on the stock market.
U.S. benchmark oil for June delivery rose $2.25 to finish at $91.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold for June delivery rose $14.90 to $1,423.70 an ounce.
In government bond trading, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.71 percent from 1.70. The yield fell to 1.69 percent last week, close to its lowest of the year.
Business, Pages 26 on 04/25/2013