NEW YORK — Stock indexes finished about where they started Tuesday after a round of disappointing corporate earnings and another drop in home prices. Trading was muted ahead of President Barach Obama’s State of the Union speech, in which he was expected to outline a plan to reduce the deficit.
Four of the 30 companies in the Dow Jones industrial average reported results before the market opened: DuPont, 3M, Verizon and Johnson & Johnson.
Doug Roberts, chief investment strategist for Channel Capital , said investors were looking ahead to Obama’s address and a Federal Reserve meeting that concludes today.
The Fed’s $600 billion bond-buying plan, launched in November, was partially aimed at boosting stock prices. The S&P 500 has gained 8.9 percent in the past three months.
“As long as the Fed keeps pumping money into the economy,” Roberts said, “stocks will probably keep going up.”
Prices fell in 19 out of the 20 cities tracked by the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index in November.
• 3M lost 2 percent after the manufacturing company’s income fell because of higher costs.
• Johnson & Johnson lost 1.8 percent after reporting a 12 percent drop in income. The maker of Tylenol and other drugs was hammered by costly recalls of its products.
• DuPont’s income fell but still beat expectations. Its stock rose 0.3 percent.
• Verizon’s stock gained 1.6 percent after the phone company’s profits surged.
The Dow lost 3.33 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 11,977.19. It had been down as many as 82 points earlier.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index inched up 0.34, or less than 0.1 percent, to 1,291.18. The Nasdaq composite gained 1.7 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,719.25.
Another Dow component, American Express, fell 2.2 percent after reporting earnings late Monday that came in below analysts’ expectations.
“People tried to take the market lower, but the bulls did not let it happen,” said Alan Gayle, senior investment strategist at RidgeWorth Capital Management in Richmond, Va., which oversees $52.5 billion. “The trend for stocks is up. There are also some expectations on what the State of the Union address will be. Some people didn’t want to go short on a day like today.”
