Mixed earnings put brakes on stock market rally

NEW YORK — Investors aren't giving up on the stock market's rally, but they're not making big bets either.

Stocks ended a quiet day mixed Wednesday as traders remained hesitant to push further into the market following a weeklong surge on strong earnings reports.

Wednesday's modest moves left the market's recent climb intact. The Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped less than 0.5 percent, while the Nasdaq composite index advanced.

Investors responded to uneven corporate results. Apple Inc. and Starbucks Inc. jumped after beating analysts' estimates, but chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and major bank Wells Fargo & Co. fell after reporting disappointing numbers.

By the start of trading Wednesday, strong earnings reports for the April-June quarter had pushed major stock indicators up more than 8 percent in seven days. The advance restarted a rally that ran from early March through mid-June before stalling as signs of improvement in the economy started to dry up.

The latest climb has pushed the Dow up enough to erase its losses for the year and to its highest level since January. The benchmark S&P 500 index is at its highest point since November.

Analysts say it's not surprising to see the stock market slow its climb as investors raise their expectations. Of the approximately 100 companies in the S&P 500 index that had reported earnings by Wednesday, 62 percent topped analysts' forecasts, according to S&P.

"As the earnings season goes on it becomes more difficult because the bar goes higher and higher," said John Canally, economist at LPL Financial in Boston.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow fell 34.68, or 0.4 percent, to 8,881.26. The broader S&P 500 index slipped 0.51, or 0.1 percent, to 954.07, and the Nasdaq rose 10.18, or 0.5 percent, to 1,926.38, helped by Apple and Starbucks.

Major market indexes seesawed on Wednesday as they had a day earlier. Stocks pushed higher late Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the economy was recovering, though at a slow pace.

Earnings reports directed trading Wednesday. Apple rose $5.23, or 3.5 percent, to $156.74 after robust sales of laptops and iPhones pushed its profit and revenue above what analysts had expected.

Starbucks surged $2.70, or 18.4 percent, to $17.39 after the coffee chain shut stores, laid off workers and cut other costs to produce fiscal third-quarter results that topped expectations.