Stocks Mixed as Earnings Vary

By Akane Otani and Mike Bird 

Gains in Boeing's shares helped offset Apple's losses in the Dow Jones Industrial Average during choppy trading Wednesday.

Corporate earnings have driven some of the largest moves in stocks over the past week. More than a third of S&P 500 companies have reported quarterly results, according to FactSet, with energy, industrial and technology companies posting the weakest earnings growth so far.

Apple, which posted its first annual revenue decline in 15 years on Tuesday, was the biggest loser in the Dow industrials on Wednesday, falling 2.7%. The company is the biggest drag on the S&P 500 tech sector's third-quarter earnings growth from a year earlier, according to FactSet analyst John Butters.

The Dow industrials got a lift from Boeing, which rose 3.3% after the aircraft maker raised its full-year guidance. The blue-chip index rose 52 points, or 0.3%, to 18221, recovering from earlier losses.

"Earnings growth is going to be really, really key for continued growth in the market, even though we've muddled along without that for a while, " said Karyn Cavanaugh, senior market strategist at Voya Investment Management.

The Nasdaq Composite was recently down 0.3% and the S&P 500 was little changed.

U.S. crude pared losses after an Energy Information Administration report showed storage levels fell last week. Oil prices were recently down 0.8% at $49.60 a barrel.

Bond yields in developed markets pushed higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was at 1.786%, according to Tradeweb, compared with 1.758% Tuesday. German 10-year yields rose to 0.09%, from around 0.02% on Tuesday.

Elsewhere around the globe, stocks mostly fell.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index pulled back 0.4% and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index dropped 0.85%. The British pound bounced back against the dollar, rising 0.4% to $1.2231 after falling Tuesday.

"With the terms and conditions of the U.K.'s future trade links still unclear it is too early to rule out further downside risks in sterling," said Geoffrey Yu, head of UBS Wealth Management's U.K. investment office. Mr. Yu believes sterling could fall to as low as $1.10 temporarily over the next year.

Asian stocks closed broadly lower, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 1%. Japanese equities bucked the trend, with the Nikkei Stock Average closing up 0.2%.

Write to Akane Otani at [e-mail] and Mike Bird at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 26, 2016 12:35 ET (16:35 GMT)

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