Stocks Recover, Close Mixed on Earnings

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 new trading high, and resumed their trek toward 13,000.

The market picked up momentum in mid-afternoon. 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 due to 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 on Tuesday: from U.S. military contractor Lockheed Martin Corp., Dow industrials AT&T Inc. and Dupont Co., and chip maker Texas Instruments Inc."'A general optimistic tone related to better-than-expected earnings is what's moving it,"' said Richard E. Cripps, chief market strategist for Stifel Nicolaus, a broker based in St. Louis. However, "'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. Also, there were much smaller moves in the broader Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq composite indexes - which so far this year have risen by greater percentages than the Dow.