US stocks tread water with earnings season underway

NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks were slightly down on Wednesday morning, as investors digested the latest slate of financial results from companies.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1 percent at 42,773.12 around 10 minutes into trading.

The broad-based S&P 500 Index was 0.1 percent lower at 5,811.22, while the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index retreated 0.2 percent to 18,280.04.

Wall Street loses ground as chip, oil stocks plummet

Following quarterly results from Goldman Sachs showing a jump in profits Tuesday, investment bank Morgan Stanley too beat estimates with its third-quarter report a day later.

Morgan Stanley saw a “strong third quarter in a constructive environment,” according to Chief Executive Ted Pick in a statement.

The bank reported a 32-percent jump in profit to $3.2 billion, sending its shares 6.5 percent higher.

There’s not a lot of direction either way right now,“ said Steve Sosnick at Interactive Brokers.

The market) is going to be very dependent upon earnings as we keep going,“ he added, noting that Morgan Stanley’s results were positive early Wednesday.

But Dutch tech giant ASML, whose shares plunged after it unveiled a cut to its 2025 guidance and slump in sales bookings, was enough of a trigger to send share prices falling Tuesday.

The supplier of chip-making machines to the semiconductor industry saw its shares slip 4.9 percent on Wednesday.