NEW YORK — Wall Street started the week with a narrowly mixed performance Monday, with many investors moving to the sidelines as they wait for quarterly profit reports.
Stocks had popped higher in earlier trading, extending last week’s big advance on talk of a $5 billion private equity investment in Washington Mutual Inc. The nation’s largest thrift is reportedly in discussions with buyout shop TPG Inc. and other investors about selling a stake in itself in return for cash.
But with earnings on tap and the Federal Reserve issuing minutes from its March meeting today, investors, while clearly feeling more confident overall, decided to play it a little safer late in the day — especially with Alcoa Inc. announcing its first-quarter results after the close.
Alcoa was the biggest loser among the 30 Dow Jones industrials, falling $1.56, or 4 percent, to $37.44 ahead of its earnings release. The aluminum company said it had a 54 percent drop in first-quarter net income, a sharper decline than the market expected. Its shares were little changed in after-hours trading.
The broader market started pulling back when the Standard & Poor’s 500 index began approaching the levels where it stood before Wall Street’s massive selloff in early March, noted Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer’s Investment Research.
“When the market closes, first-quarter earnings kick up — it looks like people are taking money off the table ahead of those,” Detrick said. “We had a good rally. We’re thinking the next major driver will be those earnings reports.”
The Dow rose 3.01, or 0.02 percent, to 12,612.43, after rising more than 120 points earlier in the day and finishing last week up 393.02, or 3.22 percent.
Though the stock market has not recovered all the ground it lost in March, when the credit crisis reached a critical point and led to the buyout of Bear Stearns Cos., investors launched a strong comeback last week. Wall Street is growing more optimistic that stocks and the companies that issue them may be starting to rebound.
“Overall, I’m getting the sense here that the Street is starting to focus on fundamentals and the timing of a potential recovery in the economy, and trying to move past the credit crisis,” said Craig Peckham, market strategist at Jefferies & Co.
