-NYSE up 24.28 (+0.3%) to 7,418.77
-DJIA up 4 (+0.04%) to 11,410.21
-S&P 500 up 1 (+0.1%) to 1,193.88
-Nasdaq down 11.69 (-0.5%) to 2,511.48
GLOBAL SENTIMENT
Nikkei down 0.6%.
Hang Seng up 0.4%.
Shanghai Composite down 0.3%.
FTSE-100 down 0.4%.
UPSIDE MOVERS
(+) EK jumps on patent sale/deal speculation.
(+) BJ beats with earnings though sales lag.
DOWNSIDE MOVERS
(-) LPSN started with Buy rating.
(-) CHS beats with earnings, making acquisition.
(-) CSIQ stock down after results; earnings do top year ago.
(-) ANF down despite earnings beat.
(-) AIXG downgraded.
(-) BCSI continues evening slide that followed earnings miss, new CEO; downgraded today.
(-) FSLR downgraded.
(-) DE down after results.
(-) BKD downgraded.
MARKET DIRECTION
Stocks end little changed after losing an early gain that had pushed the DJIA up over 100 points at one time. Corporate earnings for some firms - such as Dell Inc. (DELL) - gave investors pause and a reason to reconsider the strength of the economic recovery. Mostly upbeat retail earnings were encouraging.
Mixed inflation data had limited market impact. Producer prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in July, as a surge in tobacco prices offset a decline in energy costs, the Labor Department said this morning. Excluding food and energy, the so-called core PPI rose 0.4%, the largest monthly gain since January, MarketWatch reported. Both readings were stronger than Wall Street economists predicted. Over 12 months, producer prices have climbed an unadjusted 7.2%.
Shares of Dell Inc. (DELL) fell sharply after the computer maker reported late yesterday that Q2 non-GAAP EPS came in at $0.54 on sales of $15.7 billion. The Street view is for EPS of 0.49 on sales of $15.76 billion. Dell raised its non-GAAP operating income growth expectation for FY 2012 to 17% to 23% year-over-year from 12% to 18%. The company also revised its full-year revenue-growth outlook to 1% to 5% from the previous range of 5% to 9%.
E*Trade Financial (ETFC) shares were higher, after the online brokerage said July daily Average Revenue Trades were 144,023, an 11% increase from June and a 12% increase from the year-ago period.