Stocks fluctuate after mixed earnings reports
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks traded mixed early Monday as a handful of earnings reports signaled that companies are still having a hard time boosting revenue.
Toymaker Hasbro Inc., like many other companies, reported its third-quarter earnings rose as it cut costs, but said that its revenue fell. Gannett Co., the country's largest newspaper publisher, also had a profitable quarter even with another big decline in ad revenue.
Apple Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc. are scheduled to release earnings after the closing bell.
Investors are anxious to see whether companies from a range of industries fared better in the quarter than banks did.
In the first hour of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 13.53, or 0.1 percent, to 10,009.44. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.47, or less than 0.1 percent, to 1,088.15. The Nasdaq composite index fell 1.23, or 0.1 percent, to 2,155.57.
Disappointing earnings from Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Inc. chilled some of investors' optimism last week. Their results showed that loan losses remain high meaning consumers and businesses are having trouble paying their bills.
Traders who last week sent the Dow over 10,000 for the first time in a year, questioned whether reports still to be released by hundreds of companies would also point to a lackluster recovering economy.
Bond prices mostly fell. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.43 percent from 3.42 percent late Friday.
The dollar fell against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.
Light, sweet crude fell 24 cents to $78.29 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Advancing stocks narrowly outpaced those that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 135.4 million shares compared with 303.4 million traded at the same point Friday. Trading was heavy at the end of last week because of the expiration of options contracts.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 0.43, or 0.1 percent, to 615.75.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.2 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 1.3 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 1.2 percent, and France's CAC-40 advanced 1.2 percent.
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