NEW YORK, April 18 — Wall Street stocks were mixed early today as a heavy week of corporate earnings got underway and investors digested cautious commentary from Chinese officials following better-than-expected data.
Worries about higher interest rates and Russia’s grinding invasion of Ukraine continued to cloud the outlook as Bank of America reported solid earnings despite lower investment banking fees.
Other earnings reports this week will come from Tesla, Procter & Gamble and Netflix. The calendar also includes housing data as well as the annual spring meeting of the IMF and World Bank.
China’s economic growth accelerated in the first quarter of the year to 4.8 per cent, topping expectations, but the government warned of “significant challenges” ahead while massive Covid-19 lockdowns started to bite.
About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.4 per cent at 34,575.23.
The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.3 per cent to 4,403.57, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 0.2 per cent at 13,328.18.
Among individual companies, Twitter declined 0.4 per cent in the first session since the company adopted a “poison pill” to counter a hostile takeover bid by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. — AFP
