US open: Stocks mixed as Q1 earnings season continues

dl wall street st new york city nyc nyse stock exchange ny dow jones nasdaq sp finance us usa united states of america — Wall StreetSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street trading got off to a mixed start on Wednesday as another busy day in terms of corporate earnings got underway.

As of 1530 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.05% at 38,484.39, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.17% to 5,079.35 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.58% firmer at 15,787.16.

The Dow opened 19.30 points lower on Wednesday, taking only a modest bite out of solid gains recorded in the previous session.

Earnings were again the main topic of conversation early on Wednesday after electric carmaker Tesla missed both top and bottom lines expectations last quarter but said it would now begin to focus more on "more affordable" vehicles, while Visa traded higher thanks to some stronger-than-expected quarterly figures, and toymaker Hasbro posted a smaller-than-expected drop in Q1 sales and easily beat profit estimates on the back of leaner inventories and steady digital gaming revenues.

Embattled aircraft manufacturer Boeing, in its first full accounting update since the midair loss of a door plug from one of its 737 Max 9 planes back in January, reported a better-than-expected quarterly performance, with revenues dropping from $425.0m to $355.0m and revenues contracting 8% to $16.57bn.

Still to come, Meta Platforms, Ford, Chipotle and IBM will all report after the market closes.

On the macro front, mortgage applications fell by 2.7% week-on-week in the seven days ended 19 April, trimming the 3.3% increase from halfway through the month to mark the sharpest weekly decline since early February, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. Last week's decline in mortgage applications came as mortgage rates jumped 11 basis points to 7.24% amid hotter-than-expected economic data and stubborn inflation led to sharp selling pressure for US Treasuries.

Elsewhere, orders for goods made to last more than three years rose slightly more than expected last month, according to the Department of Commerce. In seasonally adjusted terms, durable goods orders grew at a month-on-month pace of 2.6% in March (consensus: 2.5%). However, the prior month's gains was revised lower, from a preliminary print of 1.4% to 0.7%.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

Visa Inc. (V) $280.33 2.27%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $34.98 2.04%
Boeing Co. (BA) $171.33 1.27%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $167.98 0.65%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $365.41 0.59%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $409.41 0.45%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $183.01 0.45%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $94.42 0.43%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $277.66 0.35%
Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $56.85 0.19%