New York – Wall Street was mixed Tuesday, recovering from an early loss as investors shrugged off disappointing housing and consumer-confidence data to focus on stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings. The Dow Jones industrials set a trading high and resumed the trek toward 13,000.
The market picked up momentum in midafternoon. Investors seemed to lose some of the earlier caution they adopted after the National Association of Realtors reported sales of existing homes in March had their biggest one-month decline since January 1989.
Also, the Conference Board reported consumer confidence fell more than expected in April because of higher gas prices and broader economic concerns.
Robust first-quarter earnings reports have been driving the market higher over the past week, allowing the Dow to approach 13,000, and there were more upbeat results cheering the market Tuesday – from military contractor Lockheed Martin Corp., Dow industrials AT&T Inc. and DuPont Co., and chipmaker Texas Instruments Inc.
“A general optimistic tone related to better-than-expected earnings is what’s moving it,” said Richard Cripps, chief market strategist for Stifel Nicolaus, a broker based in St. Louis.
However, he said, “it’s not a market that’s necessarily very broad in its advance.”
He pointed out that the Dow’s strong gains in afternoon trading were driven by only a few companies, notably International Business Machines Corp. and Honeywell International Inc., which both made dividend announcements.
The Dow was up 34.54, 0.27 percent, to 12,953.94. The index set an intraday high of 12,989.86, less than 11 points away from 13,000.
Broader markets were mixed. The S&P 500 index was down 0.52, 0.03 percent, to 1,480.41, and the Nasdaq rose 0.87, 0.03 percent, to 2,524.54.
