US open: Stocks mostly higher after strong earnings from Morgan Stanley

US stocks were mostly higher on Wednesday following strong earnings from financial firms led by Morgan Stanley.

At 1543 BST, Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.12% to 20,498.87, but the S&P 500 rose 0.29% to 2,349.05, and the Nasdaq added 0.63% to 5,886.32.

Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude were both flat at $52.43 and $54.94 per barrel, respectively.

In currency markets, the dollar was up 0.13% versus the pound to 0.7798, rose 0.12% against the euro to 0.9330, and was 0.53% higher against the yen at 109.01.

In corporate news, Morgan Stanley gained 2.96% after the bank posted better-than-expected first quarter results, with a 74% jump in profit boosted by its trading and investment banking businesses.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said that Morgan Stanley’s earnings helped put a floor under the recent sell-off for financial stocks and the “bank’s numbers were boosted by a decent performance from its fixed income division, unlike Goldman Sachs yesterday which underperformed in that area” when it released its first quarter numbers.

Meanwhile, BlackRock fell 1.05% despite the money manager beating first quarter profit expectations its assets under management topping $5.4trn for the first time.

US Bancorp was up 1.04% after the lender reported a rise in profit and revenue in the first quarter thanks to an increase in loans following a hike in interest rates.

Yahoo rose 0.19% after it posted better-than-expected earnings on Tuesday ahead of its acquisition by Verizon Communications.

IBM dropped 5.5% after it reported a bigger-than-expected decline in first quarter revenue after the close on Tuesday.

After the close, earnings are due from American Express, eBay, Qualcomm, and United Rentals.

The Federal Reserve’s beige book will be released at 1900 BST and Boston Fed president Eric Rosengren will speak around 1700 BST at Bard College’s Levy Economics Institute.